




^ 













■1°*. 













MILTON'S 

PARADISE LOST 
Books I and II 



placmillan's Pocitet lEnglis!) Classics. 



A Series of English Texts, edited for use in Secondary 
Schools, with Critical Introductions, Notes, etc. 



l6mo. Levanteen. 25c. each. 



Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley. 

Browning's Shorter Poems. 

Burke's Speech on Conciliation. 

Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. 

Coleridge's The Ancient Mariner. 

Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans 

De Quincey's Confessions of an Opium-Eater. 

Dryden's Palamon and Arcite. 

Eliot's Silas Marner. 

Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield. 

Irving's The Alhambra. 

Lowell's The Vision of Sir Launfal. 

Macaulay's Essay on Addison. 

Macaulay's Essay on Milton. 

Milton's Comus, Lycidas, and Other Poems. 

Milton's Paradise Lost, Books I and II. 

Pope's Homer's Iliad. 

Scott's The Lady of the Lake. 

Scott's Marmion. 

Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. 

Shakespeare's Macbeth. 

Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. 

Tennyson's The Princess. 



OTHERS TO FOLLOW. 



/ 




JOHN MILTON. 



PARADISE LOST 

BOOKS I AND II 



fb 



BY 

/ 

JOHN MILTON 



EDITED FOR HIGH SCHOOL USE 

BY 

WILLIAM I. CRANE 

HEAD OF THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT 
STEELE HIGH SCHOOL, DAYTON, OHIO 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
1900 

All rights reserved 



n^ 



TWO COPIES RECEIVEO, 



56?31 

COPTRIGHT, 1900, 

By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



SfcCJND COPY. 



Norinooli Ptega 

J. 8. CuBhing & Co. — Berwick & Smith 
Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PAGB 



Prefatory Note v 

Introduction : 

Sketch of the Life of Milton vii 

The Cosmography of the Universe as found in Para- - 
dise Lost . ........ xvi 

Charts to Illustrate Cosmography : 

Figure 1 XXV 

Figure 2 xxvii 

Figure 3 xxix 

Figure 4 xxxi 

Figure 5 xxxiii 

Maps: 

Palestine and Jerusalem .... xxxv 

Classical References xxxvii 

Egypt and Arabia xxxix 

Individual Assignments for Research . . . xl 

Suggestive Questions xliii 

iii 



IV TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGB 

Suggestions for Khetorical Study .... xlvi 
Bibliography xlviii 

Milton's Preface 1 

Argument of Book I 3 • 

Text of Book I ....•,,, 5 

Argument of Book II . . . . . . .39 

Text of Book II 41 ' 

Arguments of Books III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, 

XI, XII 83 

Notes to Book I 93 

Notes to Book II 107 

Index . . . , 117 



PREFATORY NOTE 



The usual high school course can provide a pupil 
with a very small amount of literary knowledge com- 
pared with that which, to be a well-read man or woman, 
he or she must know ; therefore, it seems that the aim 
in teaching should be to give the pupil, while study- 
ing a classic, such training as will assist in gaining 
from the other great works of literature what the 
teacher and the editor have helped the pupil to gain 
from the one in hand. 

" The search " only can give this power. And when- 
ever the matter or the explanation that the pupil can 
find for himself is placed " ready-made " before him, 
he is prevented thereby from acquiring a training 
which will enable him to use libraries and to wade 
his depth in the great stream of good literature that the 
ages have provided. This training should be the aim 
of high school English work. Unless the pupil can 
acquire it, the great books that make life worth living 
to the trained reader will remain only far-off names to 
the pupil. Therefore the editor of the present volume 

V 



VI PREFATORY NOTE 

has prepared it along the lines of guidance rather 
than those of annotation. He has aimed to give only- 
such explanation of the text as cannot be readily- 
found by the high school pupil with the means usu- 
ally furnished him. 

The illustrations on pp. xxv, xxvii, and xxxi were 
designed by the editor, and executed by Mr. Alton 
Packard, of Dayton, Ohio. The maps on pp. xxxv, 
xxxvii, and xxxix were prepared by the editor. 

The editor hereby gratefully acknowledges his in- 
debtedness to all preceding editors, to his pupils, and 
especially to Mr. H. Orrin Jones, of Dayton, Ohio, 
whose intelligent help has been of great service. 

W. I. C. 



INTRODUCTION 



SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF MILTON 

John Milton, the author of Paradise Lost, was 
born December 9, 1608, in Bread Street, Gheapside, 
London. His father was a scrivener, or writer of legal 
documents. '* The Spread Eagle," where Milton's 
father lived, was a fit place in which to nurse the 
poetic instincts of the boy ; for his father was a musi- 
cian, a song-writer, and a composer of some reputa- 
tion. 

The boy had the advantage of the best schools of 
the time. That he did not waste his opportunities is 
shown when he writes of his love of learning, — 
" which I seized upon with such eagerness that from 
the twelfth year of my age I scarce ever went to bed 
before midnight." His biographer, Aubrey, writes, 
" When he was very young, he studied very hard, and 
sat up very late, commonly till twelve or one o'clock 
at night; and his father ordered the maid to sit up 
for him." At the age of sixteen he entered Cambridge 

vii 



viu INTRODUCTION 

University, where his fiery nature soon involved him 
in trouble with a tutor ; so here, at least, our poet 
was not so unlike ordinary mortals. In his earl}^ days 
at the University he was called, in good-natured 
allusion to his good conduct and to his effeminate 
looks, " The Lady." He was, however, held in high 
respect, for he says, " I was assured of their singular 
good affection towards me " ; and his biographers 
agree in the statement that his college career was one 
of well-earned success. In 1632, at the age of twenty- 
four, he took his degree of Master of Arts, having 
spent seven years in study and residence at the 
University. 

The literary life of Milton, like that of Chaucer, is 
divided into three periods, the separations of which 
are plainly marked. 

From the 43lose of his college life to 1640 we find 
him in quiet retirement engaged in study, or else 
in travel, making pleasant acquaintances in far-off 
Italy. 

From 1640 to 1660 we find him hotly engaged upon 
the Puritan side of the struggle for English liberty. 

From 1660 to 1674, the year of his death, we find 
him again engaged in the composition of poetry, but 
of a kind that needed the fiery furnace of the Puritan 
Revolution to inspire in him. In this period he pro- 
duced Paradise Lost, Paradise Megained, and Samson 



SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF MILTON ix 

Agonistes. It does not take a great imagination in one 
who follows his life and his poetry to feel, in these 
great poems, the echo that his poet-soul resounded upon 
the mighty martial and political struggles through 
which he had passed. 

We might expect a serious, pious, and ambitious 
nature like Milton's to enter the church at the close 
of his college career. However, despite his indus- 
try and ambition, we find him quietly retiring to his 
father's house at Horton, a little village about sev- 
enteen miles northwest of London. Here, in the quiet 
of an English village, he spent five years of patient 
study, varied by rambles in the pastures and woods of 
Buckinghamshire. We are to suppose that he made 
occasional visits to London, then (1637) a city of three 
hundred thousand inhabitants. During these five 
years he produced L' Allegro, II Penseroso, Comus, 
and Lycklas. 

It will interest the high school student of Latin 
and Greek to re^d that Milton says, "I enjoyed (at 
Horton) a complete holiday in turning over Latin and 
Greek authors." He was also familiar with French 
and Italian. It must not be thought that the years at 
Horton were spent in mere pastime or recreation. 
They were a part of his carefully laid life-plan. He 
was not given to pastime : he had ap/a/i; and he says, 
"when I take up a thing, I never pause or break 



X INTRODUCTlOir 

it off, nor am drawn away from it by any other inter- 
est, ^til I have arrived at the goal." All the time he 
was at Horton he was planning a great poem. He 
writes to a friend, " Yes, I am pluming my wings for 
a flight." His nature, education, and city life had 
unfitted him to be a " nature poet " ; and his flight 
was to be, not " somewhat near the moon," to use 
Carlyle's phrase, but to the Highest Heaven and to 
the Deepest Hell. 

In 1638 we find him at Paris, on a journey through 
France and Italy. He visited Florence, Eome, Naples, 
Venice, Geneva, and other cities, meeting noted liter- 
ary and scientific men of the time. He was well 
received everywhere, for the fame of his scholarship 
had preceded him. The most important acquaintance 
he made was that of Galileo, whom he visited at his 
home near Florence. The persecuted old scientist 
at this time was blind, but the strength of his mighty 
mind was unimpaired. The student will find in 
Paradise Lost the lines that refer to Galileo, and he 
will then know how the memory of this visit must, 
in after years, have impressed itself upon the poet. 
The poet had intended to visit Sicily and Greece, but 
the first muttering of the coming storm in England 
had reached his ear in that far-off land, and he ex- 
pressed his feelings at the time as follows : " I con- 
sidered it dishonorable to be enjoying myself at my 



SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF MILTON xi 

ease in foreign lands, while my countrymen were strik- 
ing a blow for freedom." So he returned to England, 
making his visit to Galileo on the way. 

Upon his return to England in 1639, he did not, as 
one might expect, rush into politics, nor did he return 
to Horton. He opened a school in London, where he 
undertook the education of his nephews, John and 
Edward Phillips. Milton's definition of education has 
become very famous. It is as follows : " I call a com- 
plete and generous education that which fits a man to 
perform justly, skillfully, and magnanimously all the 
offices, both private and public, of peace and war." 
An examination of this definition will show that it 
is a very good one ; but his Tractate on Education, in 
which the definition occurs, shows that Milton was 
far from understanding just how this state of mind 
was to be produced. His idea was that the accumu- 
lation of knowledge is education, while the definition 
would seem to indicate that he believed in training 
for power, as we now believe. 

It will be seen that, on his return from Italy, he is 
no longer a poet. He enters a new field, that of teach- 
ing. In 1643 this quiet student one day suddenly 
brought into the midst of his school a wife seventeen 
years of age, one Mary Powell, the daughter of a Cava- 
lier family living not far from Horton. Milton was 
now thirty -five. It seems that, like the hero of Par- 



XU INTRODUCTION 

adise Lost, he had not carefully considered conse- 
quences. The earlier years of his married life were 
most unhappy ones. Mary Powell left her husband 
without good reason, as most biographers maintain, 
and returned to the home of her mother. After two 
years of separation, however, the wife returned, and 
a reconciliation was effected. Milton may allude 
to this incident in Paradise Lost, B. X., 909-946, 
where he describes Adam's reconcilement to Eve. 
Mary Milton died 1652, at the age of twenty-six, 
having borne him four children, three of whom grew 
up to be the daughters who treated the poet so un- 
kindly in his blind old age. 

From 1640 to 1660 his life was largely occupied 
with the tremendous political affairs of that troubled 
time. Pamphlet after pamphlet, in defence of reli- 
gion and liberty, came hotly from his pen ; and his 
wrath is as sublime as that of his hero in Paradise 
Lost. At times he stooped to language which seems 
now severe and uncalled-for, but at other times he 
rose to sublime heights of patriotic utterance. The 
pamphlets, a part of the titles of which are given upon 
p. xlii, must be read to give an idea of his "Mil- 
tonic rage." This soul-storm was necessary to his 
later work ; and perhaps his Paradise Lost is the far 
away reverberation in his mighty soul when a new 
era, with his blindness and the ingratitude of his 



SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF MILTON xiii 

daughters, had turned his soul inward to feed upon its 
remembrances. 

From 1649 to 1658 he was Latin Secretary to the 
council of state and to Oliver Cromwell, his duty be- 
ing to translate into Latin, the diplomatic language 
of the time, the correspondence with foreign powers. 
Cromwell's death, in 1658, left him without occupa- 
tion ; and the restoration of Charles II., in 1660, made 
his position a very dangerous one ; for he was in im- 
minent danger from those who were punishing the 
regicides. His pamphlets had made him equally 
guilty in their eyes ; and since 1652 he had been 
totally blind. He had, despite the warnings of his 
physicians, deliberately given his eyesight for Eng- 
lish liberty. Truly he had ^' fallen on evil days " ; 
but, — 

" though fallen on evil days, 
On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues, 
In darkness, and with dangers compassed round, 
And solitude," — 

he was as undaunted as the hero of his Paradise Lost. 
Blind, deserted, proscribed, and neglected by his 
daughters, who would not read to him, who sold 
his books, and cheated him in his accounts, he had, 
indeed, " fallen on evil days." 

But no man produces what in him is greatest " until 



XIV INTRODUCTION 

he has suffered much." It is not wonderful that, 
after considering a hundred or more subjects, he chose, 
at last, Paradise Lost as the " flight " for which, in 
happier days, he had "plumed his wings." During 
this dreadful period, he had been dictating, twenty 
or thirty lines at a time, to any one who would write 
for him, his immortal poem, which was finished about 
the year 1665, and published in 1667. He sold his 
rights in the poem for a sum that would now be 
equal to about $87.50, with a contingency of about 
$262.50 more. It may be said that the merit of the 
poem was at once recognized by those qualified to 
judge ; but the price paid for it illustrates how little 
a contemporaneous public appreciates true greatness. 
At the age of sixty, says Professor Masson, he 
might have been seen " every other day led about in 
the streets in the vicinity of his Bunhill residence, a 
slender figure, of middle stature or a little less, gen- 
erally dressed in a gray cloak or overcoat, and wearing 
sometimes a small silver-hilted sword, evidently in 
feeble health, but still looking younger than he was, 
with his lightish hair, and his fair, rather than aged 
or pale, complexion." His blindness does not seem 
to have affected the appearance of his eyes, at least 
in the early days of his blindness. (See second sonnet 
to Cyriack Skinner. For lines on his blindness, see 
sounet Oil His Blindness^ and the opening lines of 



SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF MILTON xv 

B. III.) He loved music. He was affable and courte- 
ous, but a trifle stately in his manner. " He was the 
life and soul of the company," when he had friends 
with him, "from his flow of subject" and his "un- 
affected cheerfulness and civility," though a little 
critical and sarcastic about affairs of the time. 

He was married three times : first, to Mary Powell, 
who died in 1652 ; in 1656, to Katharine Woodcock, 
who died in 1658 ; and in 1663, to Elizabeth Min- 
shull, who survived him. He never saw either of the 
last two wives. His tender love for Katharine Wood- 
cock, who was evidently very kind and faithful to 
him, is commemorated in his sonnet On His Deceased 
Wife. 

In 1671 he published Paradise Begained and Sam- 
son Agonistes. These were followed by some prose 
works of no great importance. In the last year of 
his life he rearranged the ten books of Paradise Lost 
into twelve books, as we now have it. 

He died of gout on November 8, 1674, at the age 
of sixty-five years and eleven months, and was buried 
in the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, London. 



xvi INTRODUCTION 



THE COSMOGEAPHY OF THE UNIVEKSE AS 
FOUND IN PARADISE LOST WITH A 
BEIEF EXPLANATION IN EEGARD TO 
THE POEMi 

In Paradise Lost Milton adopted, for poetical rea- 
sons, the Ptolemaic conception of the universe. (See 
Encyc. Brit, Vol. IL, 777.) 

The universe in Paradise Lost is developed through 
three changes, necessitated by events in the poem. 
As first found in the poem, the universe may be rep- 
resented by Fig. 1, p. XXV. It exhibits Heaven as 
resting upon the vast ocean of Chaos, and surrounded 
by an illimitable realm of light, the Empyrean, of 
which Heaven is a part. Heaven is the abode of God 
and the angels, a realm of "light, freedom, happi- 
ness, and glory." Chaos, "the Uninhabited," is "a 
huge, limitless ocean, abyss, or quagmire of univer- 
sal darkness and lifelessness, Avherein are jumbled in 
blustering confusion the elements of all matter, or 

1 This chapter is adapted, with the exception of the " figures " 
or diagrams, from Masson. (Masson's Cambridge Ed. of Mil- 
ton's Works, or Masson's Life of Milton, Vol. VI., 523-558.) 
The present editor has substituted his own illustrations, believ- 
ing them more intelligible to high school pupils. 



THE COSMOGRAPHY OF THE UNIVERSE xvii 

rather the crude embryons of all the elements, ere as 
yet they are distinguishable. There is no light there, 
nor properly earth, water, air, or fire, but only a vast 
pulp or welter of unformed matter, in which all these 
lie tempestuously intermixed.'' 

In the beginning of the events described in Para- 
dise Lost, the Almighty assembles the angels, and 
announces to them that thereafter his Son shall be 
their " Head," and that they shall bow down and 
"confess him Lord." 

The decree is received with joyful acclamation save 
in one quarter. Satan, or Lucifer, inspired by envy, 
and aided in chief by Beelzebub, determines to con- 
test the supremacy of the Almighty, and organizes a 
rebellion. For two days tumultuous war rages on 
the plains of Heaven; but on the third day the 
Almighty calls together the faithful angels, and in 
their presence gives to his Son the power to vanquish 
and to drive from Heaven the apostate angels. (P. L., 
B. VL, 680-912.) The Son, in the Almighty's chariot 
of power, and armed with " ten thousand thunders," 
turns the tide of battle and drives the now routed and 
terrified rebel angels through the inward opening 
gates in the wall of Heaven down into the horrible 
abyss of Chaos beneath. They fall through the fear- 
ful depths in headlong plunge during a space of nine 
days, pursued by dreadful thunderbolts to a place 



xvill INTRODUCTION 

which the Almighty had prepared for them — a 
place called Hell. (P. L., B. I., 59-77 ; B. II., 570- 
628.) 

The universe has now three instead of two regions, 
as follows : Instead of Heaven and Chaos, there are 
now Heaven, Chaos, and Hell, as in Fig. 2, p. xxvii. 

On the tossing waves of Hell, the fallen angels, 
exhausted by battle and by their headlong flight 
through Chaos, and terrified by the booming thunder- 
bolts, lie prostrate for another space of nine days. 
(See Fig. 3, p. xxix.) 

At the end of this time Satan and Beelzebub make 
their way to the shore, call the other fallen angels, 
hold a council, and consider what is best to be done. 
They see that the pursuing angels have been recalled, 
and that they are now enclosed with a wall of eternal 
fire and with ninefold gates of bronze, of iron, and of 
adamantine rock, " impenetrable, impaled with circling 
fire, yet unconsumed." They are now apparently for- 
ever enclosed in this dreadful abode. (B. I., 242, et seq.) 
But Satan is not to be subdued thus. In the council 
he announces his plan of revenge. He tells the coun- 
cil that the Almighty had planned, before the fall, the 
creation of a new race of beings (B. I., 650-654) ; 
that he would now carry out the plan, and that the 
fallen angels, could they escape through the wall of 
fire and the ninefold gate that shut them in, had an 



I 



THE COSMOGRAPHY OF THE UNIVERSE XIX 

opportunity to annoy the Almighty Victor, even though 
they could not conquer him. 

And here we find that, by this new creation, the 
cosmography of the universe has again changed. The 
Son of God now passes through the gates in the crys- 
tal wall of Heaven, and with a sweep of his mighty 
compasses he cuts out of Chaos a vast globe, from 
which the Almighty forms the World. (Figure 4, 
p. .xxxi, shows the World suspended from the floor of 
Heaven. The diagram is purposely untrue as to rela- 
tive distances, in order to add to the appearance of 
immensity.) 

There are now four instead of three regions, — 
Heaven, Chaos, Hell, and the World. 

The new creation, the World, was suspended, as has 
been said, from the floor of Heaven, beneath the gates. 
Its construction is shown by Fig. 5, p. xxxiii, and 
may be described as follows : — 

It consists of ten concentric spheres, in the follow- 
ing order, beginning at the center. (It should be 
understood that these spheres, except the outer one, 
are merely spaces and not solids. Each one is a 
space that bounds the orbit of a planet or set of 
stars.) 

First sphere. The solid Earth in the center. 
Second sphere. That of Mercury. 
Third sphere. That of Venus. 



XX INTRODUCTION 

Pourth sphere. That of the Sun as a planet. 
Fifth sphere. That of Mars. 
Sixth sphere. That of Jupiter. 
Seventh sphere. That of Saturn. 
Eighth sphere. That of the Fixed Stars. 
Ninth sphere. That of the " CrystalUne Heavens." 
Tenth sphere. That of the " Primum Mobile " (first moved), 
a solid shell enclosing all, and separating the World from Chaos. 



On the Earth, the innermost sphere, the Almighty 
places Man in the Garden of Eden. Satan's plan is 
to corrupt the inhabitants of this new creation. At 
the Fandemonian council he explains his plan, and 
announces that he alone will undertake its execution. 
He dismisses the council, and sets out on the awful 
journey. He makes his way to the gates of Hell, 
which are guarded by two hideous forms. Sin and 
Death; cajoles his way out; and takes his flight 
through the immeasurable distances of inky blackness 
of Chaos toward the World, suspended from the floor 
of Heaven at its gates, through which he himself, 
with his compeers, had been hurled by the victorious 
hosts of the Almighty. (Follow the crooked line. 
Fig. 4; read B. II., 629-1055.) Upward he takes 
his way, sometimes falling "plumb down ten thou- 
sand fathoms " ; then hoisted upward again as many 
miles by the force of some chaotic explosion ; on 
through scenes of indescribable horror past Middle 



THE COSMOGRAPHY OF THE UNIVERSE xxi 

Chaos, where Chaos himself and Old Night have 
their thrones (see small pavilion in crooked line 
on Fig, 4) ; on up, until he lights upon the outer shell 
of the World at some distance from the place where, 
near the gates of Heaven, a celestial stairway makes 
a broad passage from the World to Heaven. " A 
gleam of light shows him the entrance, and into this 
glorious world, through the . opening, the Fiend, after 
a pause of wonder, suddenly precipitates himself. 
Winding his way among the fixed stars he makes 
first for the sun, which attracts him by its all-sur- 
passing magnitude. Alighting on its body, and find- 
ing the Archangel Uriel there, who has been sent 
down from the Empyrean to be regent of the great 
luminary, he disguises himself, and pretends to be 
one of the lesser angels who, not having been present 
at the Creation, has now come alone, out of curiosity, 
to behold its glories. To his inquiries as to the par- 
ticular orb which is the abode of newly created man, 
Uriel replies by pointing out the earth, shining at a 
distance in the sunlight Thus informed, he wings 
off again from the sun's body, and, wheeling his steep 
flight toward the earth, alights at length on the top 
of Mount Mphates, near Eden." (See Fig. 4 or 5, for 
Satan's flight through the World.) 

In his first attempt to bring about "man's diso- 
bedience," he is discovered, and takes to flight ; but 



XXli iKTRODVCTtOir 

returns, and tempts the " mother of mankind," who 
partakes of the "forbidden fruit." 

" The rest is misery. The angels forsake the 
Earth ; Satan hies back to Hell to announce his 
victory ; the Son of God comes down to pronounce 
doom ; and the guilty pair, who, after their first de- 
lirium of guilt, have broken out in mutual reproaches 
and revilings, are left wailing a night and a day in 
inconsolable despair." The Archangel Michael prophe- 
sies what will be the destiny of the race of man : — 

"... till one greater Man 
Restore us and regain the blissful seat." 

The cherubim now descend toward the gates. 

" High in front advanced, 
The brandished sword of God before them blazed, 
Fierce as a comet ; which, with torrid heat 
And vapor, as the Lydian air adust, 
Began to parch that temperate clime ; whereat 
In either hand the hastening angel caught 
Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate 
Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast 
To the subjected plain — then disappeared. 
They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld 
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat, 
Waved over by that flaming brand ; the gate 
With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms. 
Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon 



J 



THE COSMOGRAPHY OF THE UNIVERSE xxlil 

The world was all before them, where to choose 
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide. 
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, 
Through Eden took their solitary way." 

And thus was Paradise Lost. 



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Fig. 3. Chart of Hell. See p. xviii, 

(From Himes's Paradise Lost. By permission of Harper & Brothers.) 



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Fig. 5. The World. See pp. xix-xx. 



J 




BORMAY*CO., NJf 



Palestine and Jerusalem 



^ 




Egypt and Arabia 



xl INTRODUCTION 



INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS FOR RESEARCH 

If it be admitted that one of the chief purposes of 
English training is to develop the power of indepen- 
dent research, and also that practice is necessary to 
develop this power, then each pupil should be assigned, 
at the beginning of the study of a classic, some sub- 
ject which is closely connected with the theme of the 
classic, and which is "suited to the present research 
power of the particular pupil. 

The following are some of the individual assign- 
ments that may be made in the study of Paradise 
Lost and its author. The assignments may well be 
made at the beginning of the study of the poem, and 
may be prosecuted while the text is being studied. 

Subjects with Partial Bibliographies 

1. The making of a bibliography on Milton and Paradise 

Lost, to consist of such books as are found in the city 
and school libraries. 

2. A study of B. III. , Paradise Lost. 

3. A study of B. IV., Paradise Lost. 

4. A study of B. V. , Paradise Lost. 

5. A study of B. VI. , Paradise Lost. 

6. A study of B, VII., Paradise Lost. 

7. A study of B. VIII., Paradise Lost. 

8. A study of B. IX., Paradise Lost. 



PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES xli 

A study of B. X., Paradise Lost. 

A study of B. XI., Paradise Lost. 

A study of B. XII., Paradise Lost. 

A study of Lycidas. 

A study of L'Allegro. 

A study of II Penseroso. 

A study of Comus, divided among three pupils. 

A study of Samson Agonistes, divided among three pupils. 

An outline of Paradise Regained, v^ith brief readings. 

The universe as found in Homer, with diagrams. (Bry- 
ant's Iliad.) 

The universe as found in Vergil, with diagrams. (Dry- 
den's Vergil.) 

The universe as found in Dante, with diagrams. (Long- 
fellow's Dante.) 

The Ptolemaic Theory, with a diagram. (Encyc. Brit., 
Vol. IL, 777.) 

The Copernican Theory, with a diagram. (Encyc. Brit., 
Vol. IL, 778.) 

A demonstration, by citation of passages, of the diagrams 
found in this book. 

A diagram of Satan's flight to earth, with citations in 
proof. 

Milton's early formative influences. (See bibliography, 
p. xlviii.) 

Milton's education. (See bibliography, p. xlviii.) 

Milton's travels. (See bibliography, p. xlviii.) 

Milton's friendships. (See bibliography, p. xlviii. ) 

Milton's environment and residences. (See bibliography, 
p. xlviii.) 

London in Milton's time. (Ordish's Shakespeare's Lon- 
don.) 



xlii INTRODUCTION 

31. Milton's matrimonial affairs. (See bibliography, p. xlviii.) 

32. Milton as a historian. (Prose Works, Bohn Library.) 

33. Areopagitica. (Prose Works, Bohn Library.) 

34. Tract on Education. (Prose Works, Bohn Library.) 

35. Apology for Smectymnuus. (Prose Works, Bohn Li- 

brary. ) 

36. Defence of the English People. (Prose Works, Bohn 

Library. ) 

37. Second Defence of the English People. (Prose Works, 

Bohn Library.) 

38. Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes. (Prose 

Works, Bohn Library.) 

39. Letter to a Friend. (Prose Works, Bohn Library.) 

40. Letter to General Monk. (Prose Works, Bohn Li- 

brary. ) 

41. The Tenure of Magistrates and Kings. (Prose Works, 

Bohn Library.) 

42. Eikonoklastes. (Prose Works, Bohn Library.) 

43- The Puritan Revolution. (Gardiner, or Hume's History 
of England.) 

44. Characteristics of an epic, and the great epics. (National 

Epics, by Rabb ; McClurg.) 

45. Who is the hero of Paradise Lost ? Prove it. 

46. A search through Milton's poems for lines concerning him- 

self. 

47. A search through volumes of other poets for poetry on 

Milton. (See heading, "Poetical," under "Helps to 
the Study of Milton.") 

48. A search through the bibliography on p. 27 of Clark's 

"A Study of English Prose Writers" for select para- 
graphs on Milton. 

49. The identification of Satan, Beelzebub, Moloch, Belial, 



INTRODUCTORY SUGGESTIONS xliii 

and Mammon with certain of the " Seven Deadly Sins." 
(Encyc. Brit., Vol. VIII., 592-593, and Spenser's " Faery 
Queen," B. I., Canto iv.) 
50. Milton's Versification. (Milton's Poems, Cambridge Ed., 
Macmillan.) 



SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS 

The " suggestive questions " here offered are offered 
as suggestions only, as a complete study-plan would 
hardly be in keeping with the " research " plan advo- 
cated herein. While following the questions given, 
however, the pupils themselves will find so many 
others that time cannot be found to follow all of them 
out. 

Introductory Suggestions 

1. Have pupils read chapter on "The Cosmography 
of the Universe in Paradise Lost/^ p. xvi, of this 
book. 

2. Have pupils read text of B. I. and II. out- 
side of class, making notes of outline, and reducing 
them to the form of an "argument." The different 
" arguments " of the pupils may be put on the black- 
board, compared, discussed, and reduced to final form. 

3. Have recitations in class to be assured that 
pupils have clear ideas of the general plan of the 
[poem through B. I. and II. This need not be carried 



xliv INTRODUCTION 

out into minute detail. The work of detail may be 
left until the " suggestive questions " are taken up. 



Suggestive Questions on the Introduction 
IN B. I. 



1. What lines of the poem are included in the 
introduction ? 

2. What are the purposes of the introduction? 
(These should be given with great definiteness, and 
should be supported by the reading of citations in 
proof.) 

3. What are the divisions of the introduction ? 
Why so divided ? 

4. What two questions are asked in the introduc- 
tion ? 

5. In what words does Milton state his purpose ? 

6. At the close of the study of the poem, show the 
application of the introduction to the rest of the poem. 

Suggestive Questions on Books L and II. 

1. Trace, by citing passages, the circumstances that 
led to Satan's desire for revenge. 

Note on Question 1. — The following is an illustration of aj 
"search" made by a pupil for an answer to this question. It 
is given just as the pupil made it. Follow up the citations. 



I 



SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS xlv 



The Pupil's Notes 

I. Introduction to the question, B. I., lines 27-31. 
II. War against God. 

A. Autlior, Satan, B. I., 34-44. 

B. Cause, Satan's ambition, B. I., 36-44. 

C. Result, B. I., 44-56. 
III. Satan's wrath, B. I., 53-78. 

A. Mental and physical pain, B. I., 53-56. 

B. Increased by, — 

1. Place, B. L, 56-78. 

2. Conversation with Beelzebub, B. I., 91-124. 

3. Condition of his companions, B. I., 604-615. 

C. Leads to, — 

1. Desire for revenore, B. I., 105-124. 



2. Trace, by citing passages, the mental processes 
by which Satan arrives at his plan for revenge. 

3. Trace, by citing passages, the manner by which 
Satan imparts his desire for revenge. 

4. Trace, by citing passages, the process by which 
Satan secures the aid of the other fallen angels. 

5. Cite passages to show the nature and character- 
istics of the " Sons of God," the fallen angels. 

6. Cite passages to show the structure of the Uni- 
verse. 

7. Cite passages to show the structure of Chaos. 

8. Cite passages to show the structure of Hell. 



xlvi INTRODUCTION 

9. Cite passages to show the structure of Heaven. 

10. Have pupils draw on the blackboard, the dia- 
grams found in this book, demonstrating them by 
citations. j| 

11. Assign to individual pupils studies of the char- ' 
acters of the fallen angels as shown by their speeches. 

12. Assign to individual pupils studies of the argu- 
ments of the several speeches, briefs to be placed 
on the blackboard. 

The pupil who has thoroughly prepared himself. 
upon the poem will lind a score of good questions in 
each book of the poem. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR EHETORICAL STUDY 

Literary appreciation is a thing of slow growth, 
and is not indigenous to the average pupil. The 
study of rhetoric, not necessarily in the order of the 
book, nor in memorizing the definitions of figures, but 
in the judicious correlation of the different parts of 
the rhetoric with the work in hand, is the best aid to 
the growth of literary appreciation. The teacher will, 
of course, when desirable, break away from the order 
of the text-book in rhetoric, and choose such parts or 
chapters as will aid the pupil in the study of the 
classic in hand. This study will help to bring in thej 



FOR RHETORICAL STUDY xlvii 

day when rhetoric shall no longer be studied as an 
end, a possession, but as a means to oral expression, 
written expression, and literary appreciation. 

In studying rhetoric in connection with Paradise 
Lost, the following correlation may be made : — 

1. The chapters on Clearness, Force, Diction, and 
Form of Manuscript with oral and written expres- 
sion. 

2. The chapter on Meter with the verse of Paradise 
Lost. 

3. The chapter on Harmony with Milton's language. 

4. The chapter on Figures with Milton's figures. 
In No. 4, the classification with regard to names 

amounts to little ; while the validity, beauty, and 
strength of the comparisons made by the poet amount 
to a great deal, and will help materially in the develop- 
ment of the pupil's appreciative power. 

The following examples will illustrate the study of 
figures with a purpose toward literary appreciation 
and judgment : — 

Choose a figure from the text of Paradise Lost, 
make a diagram of the comparisons made, and then 
try to image the smallness of the one part and the 
vastness of the other. The following will serve as an 
example : — 



xlviii INTRODUCTION 

Lines 304-313, B. I., P. L, 

1. Red (Reed) Sea = Lake in Hell. 

2. Waves of Red Sea = Sulphurous waves of the Lake of 
Hell. 

3. Sedge (seaweed) or bodies of Egyptians = Fallen angels. 

Contrast insignificance of left side with magnitude 
of riglit side by reading lines 195-210, B. I. 



Other Figures 

1. Leviathan, B. I., 200-210. 2. Shield, B. I., 284- 
291. 3. Spear, B. I., 292-297. 4. Locusts, B. L, 
338-346. 

Test these in the same manner, trying to conceive 
the vastness of the Miltonic conception. 

The class will find scores of other figures. The 
chapter on Figures in the text-book will now begin to 
be interesting, definitions will be real, and names will 
be remembered. 



HELPS TO THE STUDY OF PARADISE LOST 

Garnett's Milton, Great Writers Series (Scribners) contains 
an extensive bibliography. 

Clark's A Study of English Prose Writers (Scribners) con- 
tains an excellent bibliography, in which the pages are cited. 



STUDY HELPS xlix 

I. Editions of Milton's Works : — 

A. Poetical Works, edited by Masson, 3 vols., $10.00. 

(Macmillan.) 

B. Same, edited by Masson, 3 vols., $5.00. (Macmillan.) 

C. Same, edited by Masson, "Globe Edition," 1 vol 

$1.75. (Macmillan.) 

D. Paradise Lost, edited by Himes, $1.20. rHarners 

1898.) ^ ' 

E. Prose Works, 5 vols., $1.00 each. (Bohn Libraries, 

Macmillan.) 

F. English Prose Writings, Morley, $1.00. (Routledge.) 
II. Biographical : — 

A. Brooke's Milton, Classical Writers Series, 60 cents. 

(Appletons.) 

B. Encyc. Brit., article, Milton, by Masson. 

C. Garnett's Milton, Great Writers Series, $1.00. 

(Scribners.) 

D. Pattison's Milton, English Men of Letters Series 

75 cents. (Harpers.) ' 

E. Johnson's Milton, "Lives of the Poets," $1.00. (Bohn 

Libraries, Macmillan.) 

F. Masson's Milton, 6 vols. (Macmillan.) This is the 

scholar'' s edition. 

III. Historical References : — 

A. Green's Short History of the English People, ch. viii. 

and ix., $1.20. (American Book Co.) 

B. Gardiner's Puritan Revolution, $1.00. (Scribners.) 

IV. Works of General Reference : — 
A. Mythological — 

1. Guerber's Myths of Greece and Rome. 



1 INTRODUCTION 

2. Gayley's Classic Myths. 

3. Grote's History of Greece, Vol. I. 

4. Anthon's Classical Dictionary. 

5. Smith's Classical Dictionary. 

6. Harper's Classical Dictionary. 
B. Biblical — 

1. Cruden's Concordance. 

2. Smith's Bible Dictionary. 

V. Poetical: — 

A. Tennyson's Sonnet, entitled "Milton." 

B. Dryden's Under the Portrait of Milton. 

C. Keats's On Seeing a Lock of Milton's Hair. 

D. Longfellow's Sonnet on Milton. 

E. Wordsworth's Sonnet, "Milton, Thou Should'st be 

Living at this Hour." 

F. Andrew Marvell's The Rehearsal Transposed. 

G. Gray's The Progress of Poesy, iii. 2. 

H. Pupils should find others in some library. For con- 
ceptions of Hell by other peoples, see Dante's Divine 
Comedy, by Longfellow, pp. 210-246. (Houghton 
Mifflin, & Co.) 

VI. Histories of English Literature : — 

A. The best of these are familiar to every teacher of Eng- 

lish. 

B. The pupils in cities having libraries can examine li- 

brary catalogue under "Literature, English," and 
" Milton," for other references than those given by 
the teacher. 



MILTON'S 

PARADISE LOST 
Books I and II 



MILTON'S PREFACE 



THE VEESE 

The measure is English heroic verse without rime, 
as that of Homer in Greek, and of Vergil in Latin; 
rime being no necessary adjunct or true ornament of 
poem or good verse, in longer works especially, but 
the invention of a barbarous age to set off wretched 
matter and lame meter ; graced, indeed, since by the 
use of some famous modern poets, carried away by cus- 
tom, but much to their own vexation, hindrance, and 
constraint to express many things otherwise, and for 
the most part worse, than else they would have 
expressed them. Not without cause, therefore, some, 
both Italian and Spanish poets of prime note, have 
rejected rime, both in longer and shorter works, as 
have also long since our best English tragedies, as a 
thing of itself, to all judicious ears, trivial and of no 
true musical delight; which consists only in apt 
numbers, fit quantity of syllables, and the sense 
variously drawn out from one verse into another; 

B 1. 



2 MILTON^S PREFACE 

not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault 
avoided by the learned ancients both in poetry and all 
good oratory. This neglect, then, of rime, so little 
is to be taken for a defect, though it may seem so 
perhaps to vulgar readers, that it rather is to be 
esteemed an example set, the first in English, of 
ancient liberty recovered to heroic poem from the 
troublesome and modern bondage of riming. 



BOOK I 

THE ARGUMENT 

The First Book proposes, first in brief, the whole subject, — 
man's disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise, wherein 
he was placed ; then touches the prime cause of his fall, the ser- 
pent, or rather Satan in the serpent ; who, revolting from God, 
and drawing to his side many legions of angels, was, by the 
command of God, driven out of Heaven, with all his crew, into 
the great deep. Which action passed over, the poem hastens 
into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his angels now 
fallen into Hell, described here, not in the center (for Heaven 
and Earth may be supposed as yet not made, certainly not yet 
accursed), but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest called Chaos. 
Here Satan, with his angels, lying on the burning lake, thunder- 
struck and astonished, after a certain space recovers, as from 
confusion, calls up him who next in order and dignity lay by 
him ; they confer of their miserable fall ; Satan awakens all his 
legions, who lay till then in the same manner confounded ; 
they rise ; their numbers ; array of battle ; their chief leaders 
named according to the idols known afterward in Canaan and 
the countries adjoining. To these Satan directs his speech : 
comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven, but tells them 
lastly of a new world and a new kind of creature to be created 
according to an ancient prophecy, or report in HeavAi ; for that 

3 



THE ARGUMENT 



[book 1 



angels were long before this visible creation, was the opinion of 
many ancient Fathers. To find out the truth of this prophecy, 
and what to determine thereon, he refers to a full council. 
What his associates thence attempt. Pandemonium, the palace 
of Satan, rises, suddenly built out of the deep : the infernal 
peers there sit in council. 



1 



PARADISE LOST 



BOOK I 



Of man's first disobedience," and the fruit 
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste 
Brought death into the world, and all our woe, 
With loss of Eden, till one greater" Man 
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, 
Sing, heavenly" Muse, that on the secret top 
Of Oreb° or of Sinai, didst inspire 
That shepherd, who first taught the chosen" seed 
In the beginning how the heavens and earth 
Rose out of chaos ; or, if Sion" hill 
Delight thee more, and Siloa's" brook that flowed 
Fast by the oracle" of God, I thence 
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song. 
That with no middle" flight intends to soar 
Above the Aonian" mount, while it pursues 
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. 



6 PARADISE LOST [book i 

And chiefly thou, Spirit,° that dost prefer 
Before all temples the upright heart and pure, 
Instruct me, for thou knowest. Thou from the first 
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread, 20 
Dove-like, sat'st brooding" on the vast abyss. 
And mad'st it pregnant. What in me is dark, 
Illumine ; what is low, raise and support j 
That to the highth° of this great argument, 
I may assert eternal providence. 
And justify the ways of God to men. 

Say first — for heaven° hides nothing from thy view, 
Nor the deep tract of hell — say first, what cause 
Moved our grand parents in that happy state, 
Favored of heaven so highly, to fall off 30 

From their Creator, and transgress his will 
For one restraint, lords of the world besides. 
Who first seduced them to that foul revolt ? 
The infernal Serpent° ; he it was whose guile, 
Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived 
The mother of mankind, what time his pride 
Had cast him out from heaven, with all his host 
Of rebel angels ; by whose aid, aspiring 
To set himself in glory above his peers, 
He trusted to have equaled the Most° High, 40 

If he opposed ; and, with ambitious aim, 



BOOK I] PARADISE LOST 7 

Against the throne and monarchy of God, 
Raised impious war in heaven and battle proud, 
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power 
Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, 
With hideous ruin and combustion, down 
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell 
In adamantine chains and penal fire, 
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms. 

Nine° times the space that measures day and night 50 
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew 
Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf, 
Confounded, though immortal ; but his doom 
Reserved him to more wrath ; for now the thought 
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain 
Torments him. Round he throws his baleful eyes, 
That witnessed" huge afiliction and dismay. 
Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate. 
At once, as far as angeFs ken,° he views 
The dismal situation waste and wild : 60 

A dungeon horrible, on all sides round 
As one great furnace flamed ; yet from those flames 
No light ; but rather darkness" visible 
Served only to discover sights of woe. 
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 
And rest can never dwell ; hope" never comes 



8 PARADISE LOST [book i 

That comes to all ; but torture without end 

Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed 

With ever-burning° sulphur unconsumed. 

Such° place eternal justice had prepared 70 

For those rebellious ; here their prison ordained 

In utter° darkness, and their portion set 

As far removed^ from God and light of heaven 

As from the center thrice to the utmost pole. 

Oh, how unlike the place from whence they fell ! 

There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelmed 

With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire, 

He soon discerns ; and, weltering by his side, 

One next himself in power, and next in crime, 

Long after known in Palestine,^ and named 80 

Beelzebub.® To whom the archenemy, 

And thence in heaven called Satan, with bold words 

Breaking the horrid silence, thus began : — 

" If thou beest he — but oh, how fallen ! how changed 
From him, who, in the happy realms of light. 
Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine 
Myriads, though bright ! — if he, whom mutual league, 
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope 
And hazard in the glorious enterprise. 
Joined with me once, now misery hath joined 90 

In equal ruin ; into what pit thou seest, 



BOOK i] PARADISE LOST 9 

From what highth fall'n, so much the stronger proved 

He with his thunder° ; and till then, who knew 

The force of those dire arms ? Yet not for those, 

Nor what the potent Victor in his rage 

Can else inflict, do I repent ; or change, 

Though changed in outward luster, that fixed mind. 

And high disdain from sense of injured merit. 

That with the Mightiest raised me to contend. 

And to the fierce contention brought along loo 

Innumerable force of spirits armed. 

That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring, 

His utmost power with adverse power opposed 

In dubious battle° on the plains of heaven, 

And shook his throne. What though the field be lost ? 

All is not lost ; the unconquerable will. 

And study of revenge, immortal hate. 

And courage never to submit or yield, — 

And what is else not to be overcome ? — 

That glory never shall his wrath or might no 

Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace 

With suppliant knee, and deify his power 

Who, from the terror of this arm, so late 

Doubted his empire — that were low indeed : 

That were an ignominy and shame beneath 

This downfall ; since, by fate, the strength of gods 



10 PARADISE LOST [book i 

And this empyreaP substance cannot fail ; 

Since, through experience of this great event, 

In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced, 

We may with more successful hope resolve 120 

To wage, by force or guile, eternal war, 

Irreconcilable to our grand Foe, 

Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy 

Sole reigning, holds the tyranny of heaven." 

So spake the apostate angel, though in pain, 
Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair ; 
And him thus answered soon his bold compeer : — 

" prince, chief of many throned powers 
That led the embattled seraphim° to war 
Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds 130 

Fearless, endangered heaven's perpetual King, 
And put to proof his high supremacy, 
Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate ! 
Too well I see and rue the dire event. 
That with sad overthrow and foul defeat 
Hath lost us heaven, and all this mighty host 
In horrible destruction laid thus low. 
As far as gods and heavenly essences^ 
Can perish; for the mind and spirit remains 
Invincible, and vigor soon returns, 140 

Though all our glory extinct, and happy state 



BOOK I] PARADISE LOST 11 

Here swallowed up in endless misery. 

But what if he our conqueror (whom I now 

Of force believe almighty, since no less 

Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours) 

Have left us this our spirit and strength entire 

Strongly to suffer and support our pains, 

That we may so suffice his vengeful ire. 

Or do him mightier service as his thralls° 

By right of war, whate'er his business be, 150 

Here in the heart of hell to work in fire. 

Or do his errands in the gloomy° deep ? 

What can it then avail, though yet we feel 

Strength undiminished or eternal being. 

To undergo eternal punishment ? " 

Whereto with speedy words the archfiend replied ; — 
" Fallen cherub ! to be weak is miserable. 

Doing or suffering ; but of this be sure. 

To do aught good never will be our task, 

But° ever to do ill our sole delight, 160 

As being the contrary to his high will 

Whom we resist. If then his providence 

Out of our evil seek to bring forth good. 

Our labor must be to pervert that end. 

And out of good still to find means of evil ; 

Which ofttimes may succeed, so as perhaps 



12 PARADISE LOST [book i 

Shall grieve him, if I fair not, and disturb 

His inmost counsels from their destined aim. 

But see ! the angry victor hath recalled 

His ministers of vengeance and pursuit 170 

Back to the gates of heaven ; the sulphurous hail, 

Shot after us in storm, o'erblown, hath laid 

The fiery surge that from the precipice 

Of heaven received us falling ; and the thunder, 

Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage. 

Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now 

To bellow° through the vast and boundless deep. 

Let us not slip° the occasion, whether scorn 

Or satiate fury yield it from our foe. 

Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, 180 

The seat of desolation, void of light 

Save what the glimmering of these livid flames 

Casts pale and dreadful ? Thither let us tend 

From off the tossing of these fiery waves ; 

There rest, if any rest can harbor there ; 

And, reassembling our afflicted powers, 

Consult how we may henceforth most offend 

Our enemy ; our own loss how repair ; 

How overcome this dire calamity ; 

What reenf orcement we may gain from hope ; 190 

If not, what resolution from despair," 



BOOK I] PARADISE LOST 13 

Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate, 
With head uplift above the wave, and eyes 
That sparkling blazed ; his other parts besides, 
Prone on the flood, extended long and large, 
Lay floating many a rood; in bulk as huge 
As whom the fables name of monstrous size, 
Titanian° or earth-born, that warred on Jove, 
Briareos° or Typhon,° whom the den 
By ancient Tarsus® held ; or that sea-beast 200 

Leviathan,° which God of all his works 
Created hugest that swim the ocean-stream. 
Him, haply, slumbering on Norway foam, 
The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff 
Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, 
With fixed anchor in his scaly rind, 
Moors by his side under the lee, while night 
Invests the sea, and wished morn delays. 
So stretched out huge in length the archfiend lay, 
Chained on the burning lake ; nor ever thence 210 

Had risen or heaved his head, but that the will° 
And high permission of all-ruling Heaven 
Left him at large to his own dark designs, 
That with reiterated crimes he might 
Heap on himself damnation, while he sought 
Evil to others \ and, enraged, might see 



14 PARADISE LOST [book i 

How all his malice served but to bring forth 

Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy, shown 

On man by him seduced, but on himself 

Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance poured. 220 

Forthwith, upright he rears from off the pool 
His mighty stature ; on each hand the flames. 
Driven backward, slope their pointing spires, and, 

rolled 
In billows, leave i' the midst a horrid vale. 
Then with expanded wings he steers his flight 
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air 
That felt unusual weight, till on dry land 
He lights ; if it were land that ever burned 
With solid, as the lake with liquid fire, 
And such appeared in hue, as when the force 230 

Of subterranean wind transports a hill 
Torn from Pelorus,° or the shattered side 
Of thundering ^tna,° whose combustible 
And fueled° entrails, thence conceiving fire, 
Sublimed° with mineral fury, aid the winds, 
And leave a singed bottom all involved 
With stench and smoke. Such resting found the 

sole 
Of unblest feet. Him followed his next mate. 
Both glorying to have scaped the Stygian° flood 



BOOK I] PARADISE LOST 15 

As gods, and by their own recovered strength, 240 

Not by the sufferance of supernal power. 

" Is this the region, this the soil, the clime," 
Said then the lost archangel, " this the seat 
That we must change for heaven? — this mournful 

gloom 
For that celestial light ? Be it so ! since he 
Who now is sovran can dispose and bid 
What shall be right : farthest from him is best, 
Whom reason hath equaled,® force hath made supreme 
Above his equals. Farewell,® happy fields. 
Where joy forever dwells ! Hail, horrors ! hail, 250 
Infernal world ! and thou, profoundest Hell, 
Eeceive thy new possessor ! one who brings 
A mind not to be changed by place or time. 
The mind is its own place, and in itself 
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. 
What matter where, if I be still the same. 
And what I should be, all but less than he 
Whom thunder hath made greater ? Here at least 
We shall be free : the Almighty hath not* built 
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence : 260 

Here we may reign secure ; and, in my choice, 
To reign° is worth ambition, though in hell : 
Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven ! 



16 PARADISE LOST [book i 

But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, 

The associates and co-partners of our loss, 

Lie thus astonished° on the oblivious^ pool, 

And call them not to share with us their part 

In this unhappy mansion, or once more 

With rallied arms to try what may be yet 

Regained in heaven, or what more lost in hell ? '* 270 

So Satan spake, and him Beelzebub 
Thus answered : " Leader of those armies bright. 
Which, but the Omnipotent, none could have foiled. 
If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge 
Of hope in fears and dangers — heard so oft 
In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge° 
Of battle when it raged, in all assaults 
Their surest signal — they will soon resume 
New courage and revive, though now they lie 
Groveling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, 280 

As we erewhile, astounded and amazed : 
No wonder, fallen such a pernicious highth ! " 

He scarce had ceased, when the superior fiend 
Was moving 'toward the shore ; his ponderous shield,° 
Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round. 
Behind him cast. The broad circumference 
Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb 
Through optic glass the Tuscan° artist views 



BOOK I] PARADISE LOST 17 

At evening from the top of Fesole 

Or in Valdarno,° to descry new lands, 290 

Eivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe. 

His spear — to equal which the tallest pine, 

Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast 

Of some great ammiral,° were but a wand — 

He walked with, to support uneasy steps 

Over the burning marle,° not like those steps 

On heaven's azure ; and the torrid clime 

Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire. 

Nathless he so endured, till on the beach 

Of that inflamed sea he stood, and called 300 

His legions, angel forms, who lay entranced 

Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks 

In Vallombrosa,° where the Etrurian° shades 

High over-arched embower ; or scattered sedge 

Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion° armed 

Hath vexed the Red Sea coast, whose waves overthrew 

Busiris° and his Memphian° chivalry,° 

While with perfidious° hatred they pursued 

The sojourners of Goshen,° who beheld 

From the safe shore their floating carcasses 310 

And broken chariot-wheels. So, thick bestrown. 

Abject and lost lay these, covering the flood, 

Under amazement of their hideous change. 



18 PARADISE LOST ' [book i 

He called so loud that all tlie hollow deep 
Of hell resounded : — " Princes, Potentates, 
Warriors, the flower of heaven — once yours ; now lost, 
If such astonishment as this can seize 
Eternal spirits ! Or have ye chosen this place 
After the toil of battle to repose 

Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find 320 

To slumber here, as in the vales of heaven ? 
Or in this abject posture have ye sworn 
To adore the Conqueror, who now beholds 
Cherub° and seraph° rolling in the flood 
With scattered arms and ensigns, till anon 
His swift pursuers from heaven-gates discern 
The advantage, and, descending, tread us down 
Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts° 
Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf ? — 
Awake, arise, or be forever fallen ! '^ 330 

They heard, and were abashed, and up they sprung 
Upon the wing ; as when men, wont to watch, 
On duty sleeping found by whom they dread, 
Eouse and bestir themselves ere well awake. 
JSTor did they not° perceive the evil plight 
In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel ; 
Yet to their general's voice they soon obeyed, 
Innumerable. As when the potent rod° 



BOOK i] PARADISE LOST 19 

Of Amrani's° son, in Egypt's evil day, 

Waved round the coast, up-called a pitchy cloud° 340 

Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, 

That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung 

Like night, and darkened all the land of Nile ; 

So numberless were those bad angels seen 

Hovering on wing under the cope of hell, 

'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires ; 

Till, as a signal given, the uplifted spear 

Of their great sultan waving to direct 

Their course, in even balance down they light 

On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain ; 350 

A multitude^ like which the populous North 

Poured never from her frozen loins to pass 

Ehene° or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons 

Came like a deluge on the South, and spread 

Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands. 

Forthwith from every squadron and each band. 

The heads and leaders thither haste where stood 

Their great commander ; godlike shapes, and forms 

Excelling human ; princely dignities ; 

And powers that erst in heaven sat on thrones, 360 

Though of their names in heavenly records now 

Be no memorial, blotted out and rased 

By their rebellion from the books of life. 



20 PARADISE LOST [book i 

Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve 

Got them new names ; till, wandering o'er the earth, 

Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man, 

By falsities and lies the greatest part 

Of mankind they corrupted to forsake 

God their Creator, and the invisible 

Glory of him that made them to transform 370 

Oft to the image of a brute, adorned 

With gay religions full of pomp and gold) 

And devils to adore for deities : 

Then were they known to men by various names, 

And various idols through the heathen world. 

Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who 
last. 
Roused from the slumber on that fiery couch. 
At their great emperor's call, as next in worth 
Came singly where he stood on the bare strand, 
While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof. 380 

The chief were those, who, from the pit of hell 
Eoaming to seek their prey on earth, durst fix 
Their seats, long after, next the seat of God, 
Their altars by his altar, gods adored 
Among the nations round ; and durst abide 
Jehovah thundering out of Sion, throned 
Between the cherubim° ; yea, often placed 



BOOK I] PARADISE LOST 21 

Within his sanctuary itself their shrines, 
Abominations ; and with cursed things 
His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned, 390 

And with their darkness durst affront his light. 

First° Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood 
Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears. 
Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud. 
Their children's cries unheard, that passed through fire 
To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite 
Worshiped in Eabba and her watery plain, 
In Argob and in Basan, to the stream 
Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such 
Audacious neighborhood, the wisest heart 400 

Of Solomon he led by fraud to build 
His temple° right against the temple of God 
On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove 
The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence 
And black Gehenna called, the type of hell. 
Next, Chemos,° the obscene dread of Moab's sons. 
From Aroar to Nebo and the wild 
Of southmost Abarim ; in Hesebon 
And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond 
The flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines, 410 

And Eleale to the Asphaltic° pool ; 
Peor his other name, when he enticed 



22 PARADISE LOST [book t 

Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile, 

To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. 

Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged 

Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove 

Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate. 

Till good Josiah drove them thence to hell. 

With these came they, who, from the bordering flood 

Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts 420 

Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names 

Of Baalim° and Ashtaroth, those male. 

These feminine ; for spirits, when they please, 

Can either sex assume, or both ; so soft 

And uncompounded is their essence pure, 

Not tied or manacled with joint or limb, 

Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, 

Like cumbroiis flesh ; but, in what shape they choose, 

Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, 

Can execute their aery purposes, 430 

And works of love or enmity fulfill. 

For those the race of Israel oft forsook 

Their Living Strength, and unfrequented left 

His righteous altar, bowing lowly down 

To bestial gods ; for which their heads, as low 

Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear 

Of despicable foes. With these in troop 



BOOK i] PARADISE LOST 23 

Came Astoreth,° whom the Phoenicians called 

Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns ; 

To whose bright image nightly by the moon 440 

Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs ; 

In Sion also not unsung, where stood 

Her temple on the offensive mountain, built 

By that uxorious king° whose heart, though large, 

Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell 

To idols foul. Thammuz° came next behind, 

Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured 

The Syrian damsels to lament his fate 

In amorous ditties all a summer's day, 

While smooth Adonis from his native rock 450 

Kan purple to the sea, supposed with blood 

Of Thammuz yearly wounded : the love tale 

Infected Sion's daughters with like heat, 

Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch 

Ezekiel° saw, when, by the vision led, 

His eye surveyed the dark idolatries 

Of alienated Judah. Next came° one 

Who mourned in earnest, when the captive ark 

Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopt off. 

In his own temple, on the grunsel° edge, 460 

Where he fell flat and shamed his worshipers ". 

Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man 



24 PARADISE LOST [book i 

And downward fish ; yet had his temple high 

Reared° in Azotus, dreaded through the coast 

Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon, 

And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds. 

Him followed Eimmon, whose delightful seat 

Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks 

Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams. 

He also against the house of God was bold : 470 

A leper° once he lost, and gained a king, 

Ahaz,° his sottish conqueror, whom he drew 

God's altar to disparage and displace 

For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn 

His odious offerings, and adore the gods 

Whom he had vanquished. After these appeared 

A crew who, under names of old renown, 

Osiris,° Isis,° Orus,° and their train, 

With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused 

Fanatic Egypt and her priests to seek 480 

Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms 

Rather than human. Nor did° Israel scape 

The infection, when their borrowed gold composed 

The calf in Oreb ; and the rebel king° 

Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan, 

Likening his Maker to the grazed ox — 

Jehovah, who in one night, when he passed 



BOOK i] PARADISE LOST 25 

From Egypt marching, equaled with one stroke 
Both her firstborn and all her bleating gods. 
BeliaF came last ; than whom a spirit more lewd 490 
Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love 
Vice for itself. To him no temple stood 
Or altar smoked; yet who more oft than he 
In temples and at altars, when the priest 
Turns atheist, as did Eli's sons, who filled 
With lust and violence the house of God ? 
In courts and palaces he also reigns. 
And in luxurious cities, where the noise 
Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers, 
And injury and outrage ; and, when night 500 

Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons 
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine. . . . 
These were the prime in order and in might : 
The rest were long to tell ; though far renowned 
The Ionian Gods — of Javan's issue held 
Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth, 
Their boasted parents; — Titan,° Heaven's firstborn,5io 
With his enormous brood, and birthright seized 
By younger Saturn : he from mightier Jove, 
His own and Ehea's son, like measure found ; 
So Jove usurping reigned. These, first in Crete 
And Ida known, thence on the snowy top 



26 PARADISE LOST [book i 

Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air, 

Their highest heaven ; or on the Delphian° cliff, 

Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds 

Of Doric land ; or who with Saturn old 

Fled over Adria° to the Hesperian fields, 520 

And o'er the Celtic° roamed the utmost isles. 

All these and more came flocking ; but with looks 
Downcast and damp ; yet such wherein appeared 
Obscure some glimpse of joy to have found their chief 
Not in despair, to have found themselves not lost 
In loss itself ; which on his countenance cast 
Like doubtful hue. But he, his wonted pride 
Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore 
Semblance of worth, not substance, gently raised 
Their fainting courage and dispelled their fears ; 530 
Then straight commands that, at the warlike sound 
Of trumpets loud and clarions, be upreared 
His mighty standard. That proud honor claimed 
Azazel as his right, a cherub tall ; 
Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled 
The imperial ensign ; which, full high advanced, 
Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind. 
With gems and golden luster rich emblazed, 
Seraphic arms and trophies ; all the while 
Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds : 540 



BOOK i] PARADISE LOST 27 

At which the universal host up-sent 

A shout that tore hell's concave, and beyond 

Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night. 

All in a moment through the gloom were seen 

Ten thousand banners rise into the air, 

With orient° colors waving : with them rose 

A forest huge of spears ; and thronging helms 

Appeared, and serried shields in thick array 

Of depth immeasurable. Anon they move 

In perfect phalanx to the Dorian° mood 550 

Of flutes and soft recorders — such as raised 

To highth of noblest temper heroes old 

Arming to battle, and instead of rage 

Deliberate valor breathed, firm, and unmoved 

With dread of death to flight or foul retreat ; 

Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage 

With solemn touches troubled thoughts, and chase 

Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain 

From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they, 

Breathing united force with fixed thought, 560 

Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed 

Their painful steps o'er the burnt soil. And now 

Advanced in view they stand, a horrid front 

Of dreadful length and dazzling arms, in guise 

Of warriors old, with ordered spear and shield, 



28 PARADISE LOST [book i 

Awaiting what command their mighty chief 

Had to impose. He through the armed files 

Darts his experienced eye, and soon traverse 

The whole battalion views, their order due, 

Their visages and stature as of gods : 57° 

Their number last he sums. And now his heart 

Distends with pride, and, hardening in his strength, 

Glories ; for never, since created man, 

Met such embodied force as, named with these, 

Could merit more than that small° infantry 

Warr'd on by cranes ; though all the giant brood 

Of Phlegra° with the heroic race were joined 

That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side 

Mixed with auxiliar gods ; and what resounds 

In fable or romance of Uther's son° 580 

Begirt with British and Armoric knights ; 

And all who since, baptized or infidel, 

Jousted in Aspramont, or Montalban, 

Damasco, or Morocco, or Trebizond, 

Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore 

When Charlemain° with all his peerage fell 

By Fontarabbia. Thus far these beyond 

Compare of mortal prowess, yet observed 

Their dread commander. He, above the rest 

In shape and gesture proudly eminent, 590 



BOOK I] PARADISE LOST 29 

Stood like a tower. His form had yet not lost 

All lier° original brightness, nor appeared 

Less than archangel ruined, and the excess 

Of glory obscured : as when the sun, new-risen, 

Looks through the horizontal misty air. 

Shorn of his beams, or, from behind the moon, 

In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds 

On half the nations, and with fear of change 

Perplexes monarchs. Darkened so, yet shone 

Above them all the archangel ; but his face 600 

Deep scars of thunder had intrenched ; and care 

Sat on his faded cheek, but under brows 

Of dauntless courage, and considerate pride 

Waiting revenge. Cruel his eye, but cast 

Signs of remorse and passion, to behold 

The fellows of his crime, the followers rather 

(Far other once beheld in bliss), condemned 

Forever now to have their lot in pain ; 

Millions of spirits for his fault amerced 

Of heaven, and from eternal splendors flung 610 

For his revolt ; yet faithful how they stood. 

Their glory withered : as, when heaven's fire 

Hath scathed the forest oaks or mountain pines, 

With singed top, their stately growth, though bare. 

Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared 



30 PARADISE LOST [book i 

To speak ; whereat their doubled ranks they bend 
From wing to wing, and half inclose him round 
With all his peers : attention held them mute. 
Thrice he assayed, and thrice, in spite of scorn. 
Tears, such as angels weep, burst forth : at last, 620 
Words interwove with sighs found out their way. 

" 0° myriads of immortal spirits ! powers 
Matchless, but with the Almighty ! — and that strife 
Was not inglorious, though the event was dire, 
As this place testifies, and this dire change 
Hateful to utter ! But what power of mind. 
Foreseeing or presaging, from the depth 
Of knowledge past or present, could have feared 
How such united force of gods, how such 
As stood like these, could ever know repulse ? 630 

For who can yet believe, though after loss, 
That all these puissant legions, whose exile 
Hath emptied heaven, shall fail to reascend, 
Self -raised, and repossess their native seat ? 
For me, be witness all the host of heaven, 
If counsels different, or danger shunned 
By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns 
Monarch in heaven, till then as once secure 
Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute, 
Consent, or custom, and his regal state 640 



BOOK i] PARADISE LOST 31 

Put forth at full, but still his strength concealed ; 

Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall. 

Henceforth his might we know, and know our own, 

So as not either to provoke, or dread 

New war, provoked : our better part remains 

To work in close design, by fraud or guile. 

What force affected not ; that he no less 

At length from us may find, who overcomes 

By force hath overcome but half his foe. 

Space may produce new worlds ; whereof so rife 650 

There went a fame in heaven that he ere long 

Intended to create, and therein plant 

A generation whom his choice regard 

Should favor equal to the sons of heaven. 

Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps 

Our first eruption ; thither, or elsewhere ; 

For this infernal pit shall never hold 

Celestial spirits in bondage, nor the abyss 

Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts 

Full counsel must mature. Peace is despaired ; 660 

For who can think submission ? War, then, war. 

Open or understood, must be resolved." 

He spake ; and to confirm his words, out-flew 
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs 
Of mighty cherubim : the sudden blaze 



32 PARADISE LOST [book i 

Far round illumined hell. Highly they raged 
Against the highest, and fierce with grasped arms 
Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war, 
Hurling defiance toward the vault of heaven. 

There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top 670 

Belched fire and rolling smoke : the rest entire 
Shone with a glossy scurf, undoubted sign 
That in his womb was hid metallic ore, 
The work of sulphur. Thither, winged with speed, 
A numerous brigade hastened ; as when bands 
Of pioneers, with spade and pickaxe armed, 
Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field. 
Or cast a rampart. Mammon° led them on, 
Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell 
From heaven; for even in heaven his looks and 
thoughts 680 

Were always downward bent, admiring more 
The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold. 
Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed 
In vision beatific. By him first 
Men also, and by his suggestion taught. 
Ransacked the center, and with impious hands 
Rifled the bowels of their mother Earth 
For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew 
Opened into the hill a spacious wound, 



BOOK i] PAHADISE LOST 33 

And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire 690 

That riches grow in hell : that soil may best 

Deserve the precious bane. And here let those 

Who boast in mortal things, and, wondering, tell 

Of Babel° and the works of Memphian kings, 

Learn how their greatest monuments of fame, 

And strength, and art, are easily outdone 

By spirits reprobate, and in an hour 

What in an age they, with incessant toil 

And hands innumerable, scarce perform. 

Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared, 700 

That underneath had veins of liquid fire 

Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude 

With wondrous art founded the massy ore. 

Severing each kind, and scummed° the bullion dross. 

A third as soon had formed within the ground 

A various mold, and from the boiling cells 

By strange conveyance filled each hollow nook ; 

As in an organ, from one blast of wind. 

To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes. 

Anon out of the earth a fabric huge 710 

Kose like an exhalation, with the sound 

Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet. 

Built like a temple, where pilasters round 

Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid 



34 PARADISE LOST [book i 

With golden architrave ; nor did there want 

Cornice or frieze, with bossy sculptures graven : 

The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon 

Nor great Alcairo such magnificence 

Equaled in all their glories, to enshrine 

Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat 720 

Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove 

In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile 

Stood fixed her stately highth ; and straight the doors, 

Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide 

Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth 

And level pavement. From the arched roof, 

Pendent by subtle magic, many a row 

Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed 

With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light 

As from a sky. The hasty multitude 730 

Admiring entered ; and the work some praise, 

And some the architect. His hand was known 

In heaven by many a towered structure high, 

Where sceptered angels held their residence, 

And sat as princes, whom the supreme King 

Exalted to such power, and gave to rule, 

Each° in his hierarchy, the orders bright. 

Nor was his name unheard or unadored 

In ancient Greece ; and in Ausonian° land 



BOOK i] PARADISE LOST 35 

Men called him Mulciber° ; and how he fell 74° 

From heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove 

Sheer o'er the crystal battlements : from morn 

To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, 

A summer's day ; and with the setting sun 

Dropt from the zenith like a falling star, 

On Lemnos° the ^gean isle. Thus they relate, 

Erring ; for he with his rebellious rout 

Fell long before ; nor aught availed him now 

To have built in heaven high towers ; nor did he scape 

By all his engines, but was headlong sent 750 

With his industrious crew to build in hell. 

Meanwhile the winged heralds by command 
Of sovran power, with awful ceremony 
And trumpets' sound, throughout the host proclaim 
A solemn council forthwith to be held 
At Pandemonium,° the high capital 
Of Satan and his peers. Their summons called 
From every band and squared regiment 
By place or choice the worthiest : they anon 
With hundreds and with thousands trooping came 760 
Attended. All access was thronged : the gates 
And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall 
(Though like a covered field, where champions^ bold 
Wont ride in armed, and at the soldan's chair 



36 PARADISE LOST [book l 

Defied the best of Paynim° chivalry 

To mortal combat or career with lance) 

Thick swarmed, both on the ground and in the air, 

Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees 

In springtime, when the Sun with Taurus rides. 

Pour forth their populous youth about the hive 770 

In clusters, they among fresh dews and flowers 

Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank, 

The suburb of their straw-built citadel. 

New rubbed with balm, expatiate, and confer 

Their state affairs : so thick the aery crowd 

Swarmed and were straitened ; till, the signal given, 

Behold a wonder ! they but now who seemed 

In bigness to surpass Earth's giant sons, 

Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room 

Throng numberless, like that pygmean° race 780 

Beyond the Indian mount ; or f aery° elves, 

Whose midnight revels, by a forest side 

Or fountain, some belated peasant sees. 

Or dreams he sees, while overhead the Moon 

Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth 

Wheels her pale course : they, on their mirth and dance 

Intent, with jocund music charm his ear : 

At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds. 

Thus incorporeal spirits to smallest forms 



BOOK i] PARADISE LOST 37 

Keduced their shapes immense, and were at large, 790 

Though without number still, amidst the hall 

Of that infernal court. But far within. 

And in their own dimensions like themselves, 

The great seraphic lords and cherubim 

In close recess and secret conclave sat, 

A thousand demigods on golden seats, 

Frequent and full. After short silence then, 

And summons read, the great consult began. 



END OF BOOK I 



BOOK II 

THE ARGUMENT 

The consultation begun, Satan debates whether another battle 
be to be hazarded for the recovery of Heaven : some advise it, 
others dissuade, A third proposal is preferred, mentioned before 
by Satan, to search the truth of that prophecy or tradition in 
Heaven concerning another world, and another kind of creature 
equal or not much inferior to themselves, about this time to be 
created : their doubt who should be sent on this difficult search. 
Satan, their chief, undertakes alone the voyage, is honored and 
applauded. The council thus ended, the rest betake them sev- 
eral ways, and to several employments, as their inclinations 
lead them, to entertain the time till Satan return. He passes on 
his journey to Hell-gates ; finds them shut, and who sat there 
to guard them ; by whom at length they are opened, and dis- 
cover to him the great gulf between Hell and Heaven ; with 
what difficulty he passes through, directed by Chaos, the power 
of that place, to the sight of this new world which he sought. 



39 



BOOK II 

High on a throne of royal state, which far 

Outshone the wealth of Ornius° and of Ind,° 

Or where the gorgeMs East with richest hand 

Showers^ on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, 

Satan exalted sat, by merit° raised 

To that bad° eminence ; and, from despair® 

Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires 

Beyond thus high, insatiate to pursue 

Vain war with heaven ; and, by success untaught. 

His proud imaginations thus displayed : — i 

" Powers and Dominions, Deities° of Heaven ! — 
For, since no deep within her gulf can hold 
Immortal vigor, though oppressed and fallen, 
I give not heaven for lost : from this descent 
Celestial virtues rising will appear 
More glorious and more dread than from no fall. 
And trust themselves to fear no second fate ! — 
Me, though just right,° and the fixed laws of heaven. 
Did first create your leader ; next, free choice. 
With what besides in council or in fight 2 

41 



42 PARADISE LOST [book ii 

Hath been achieved of merit ; yet this loss, 

Thus far at least recovered, hath much more 

Established in a safe, unenvied throne, 

Yielded with full consent. The happier state 

In heaven, which follows dignity, might draw 

Envy from each inferior ; but who here 

Will envy whom the highest place exposes 

Eoremost to stand against the Thunderer's aim 

Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share 

Of endless pain ? Where there is, then, no good 30 

For which to strive, no strife can grow up there 

From faction ; for none sure will claim in hell 

Precedence ; none, whose portion is so small 

Of present pain that with ambitious mind 

Will covet more ! With this advantage, then, 

To union, and firm faith, and firm accord. 

More than can be in heaven, we now return 

To claim our just inheritance of old. 

Surer to prosper than prosperity 

Could have assured us ; and by what best way, 40 

Whether of open war or covert guile. 

We now debate. Who can advise, may speak.'' 

He ceased ; and next him Moloch, sceptered king, 
Stood up, the strongest" and the fiercest spirit 
That fought in heaven, now fiercer by despair. 



BOOK ii] PARADISE LOST 43 

His trust was with the Eternal to be deemed 

Equal in strength, and, rather than be less, 

Cared not to be at all : with that care lost. 

Went all his fear ; of God, or hell, or worse. 

He recked not, and these words thereafter spake : — 50 

"My° sentence is for open war. Of wiles, 
More unexpert, I boast not : them let those 
Contrive who need, or when they need ; not now. 
Eor, while they sit contriving, shall the rest. 
Millions that stand in arms and longing wait 
The signal to ascend, sit lingering here. 
Heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling-place 
Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame, 
The prison of his tyranny who reigns 
By our delay ? No ! let us rather choose, 60 

Armed with hell-flames and fury, all at once, 
O'er heaven's high towers to force resistless way, 
Turning our tortures into horrid arms 
Against the Torturer ; when, to meet the noise 
Of his almighty engine, he shall hear 
Infernal thunder; and, for lightning, see 
Black° fire and horror shot with equal rage 
Among his angels, and his throne itself 
Mixed with Tartarean" sulphur and strange fire, 
His own invented torments. But perhaps 70 



44 PARADISE LOST [book n 

The way seems difficult, and steep to scale 

With upright wing against a higher foe ! 

Let such bethink° them, if the sleepy drench** 

Of that forgetful lake° benumb not still, 

That in our proper° motion we ascend 

Up to our native seat : descent and fall 

To us is adverse. Who but felt of late, 

When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear 

Insulting, and pursued us through the deep, 

With what compulsion and laborious flight 80 

We sunk thus low ? The ascent is easy, the n ; ^ 

The event is feared ! Should we again provoke 

Our stronger, some worse way his wrath may find 

To our destruction, — if there be in hell 

Fear to be worse destroyed ! — What can be worse 

Than to dwell here, driven out from bliss, condemned 

In this abhorred deep to utter woe ; 

Where pain of unextinguishable fire 

Must exercise us without hope of end, 

The vassals of his anger, when the scourge 90 

Inexorably, and the torturing hour. 

Calls us to penance ? More destroyed than thus, 

We should be quite abolished, and expire. 

What fear we then ? what doubt we to incense 

His utmost ire ? which, to the highth enraged, 



BOOK II] PARADISE LOST 45 

Will either quite consume us, and reduce 

To nothing this essential — happier far 

Than, miserable, to have eternal being ! — 

Or, if our substance be indeed divine, 

And cannot cease to be, we are at worst loo 

On this side nothing ; and by proof we feel 

Our power sufficient to disturb his heaven, 

And with perpetual inroads to alarm. 

Though inaccessible, his fatal throne ; 

Which, if not victory, is yet revenge ! " 

He. ended frowning, and his look denounced 
Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous 
To less than gods. On the other side, up rose 
Belial, in act more graceful and humane. 
A fairer person lost not heaven : he seemed no 

For dignity composed, and high exploit ; 
But all was false and hollow, though his tongue 
Dropt manna, and could make the worse° appear 
The better reason, to perplex and dash 
Maturest counsels ; for his thoughts were low. 
To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds. 
Timorous and slothful. Yet he pleased the ear, 
And with persuasive accent thus began : — 

" 1° should be much for open war, Peers, 
As not behind in hate, if what was ui-ged 120 



46 PARADISE LOST [book n 

Main reason to persuade immediate war 

Did not dissuade me most, and seem to cast 

Ominous conjecture on the whole success; 

When he who most excels in fact of arms, 

In what he counsels and in what excels 

Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair 

And utter dissolution, as the scope 

Of all his aim, after some dire revenge. 

First, what revenge ? The towers of heaven are filled 

With armed watch, that render all access 130 

Impregnable : oft on the bordering deep 

Encamp their legions, or, with obscure wing, 

Scout far and wide into the realm of Night, 

Scorning surprise. Or, could we break our way 

By force, and at our heels all hell should rise 

With blackest insurrection to confound 

Heaven's purest light, yet our great Enemy, 

All incorruptible, would on his throne 

Sit unpolluted ; and the ethereal mold, 

Incapable of stain, would soon expel 140 

Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire, 

Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope 

Is fiat despair : we must exasperate 

The Almighty Victor to spend all his rage ; 

And that must end us : that must be Qur cure, — 



BOOK II] PARADISE LOST 47 

To be no more. Sad cure ! for who would lose, 

Though full of pain, this intellectual being, 

Those thoughts that wander through eternity, 

To perish rather, swallowed up and lost 

In the wide womb of uncreated Night, 150 

Devoid of sense and motion ? And who knows. 

Let this be good, whether our angry Foe 

Can give it, or will ever ? How he can. 

Is doubtful : that he never will, is sure. 

Will he, so wise, let loose at once his ire, * 

Belike through impotence, or unaware. 

To give his enemies their wish, and end 

Them in his anger whom his anger saves 

To punish endless ? ' Wherefore cease we, then ? ' 

Say they who counsel war : ' we are decreed, 160 

Reserved, and destined to eternal woe : 

Whatever doing, what can we suffer more ? 

AVhat can we suffer worse ? ' Is this, then, worst, 

Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in arms ? 

What when we fled amain, pursued and strook 

With heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought 

The deep to shelter us ? This hell then seemed 

A refuge from those wounds. Or when we lay 

Chained on the burning lake ? That sure was worse. 

What if the breath that kindled those grim fires, 170 



48 PARADISE LOST [book n 

Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage, 
And plunge us in the flames ? or, from above. 
Should intermitted vengeance arm again 
His red right hand to plague us ? What if all 
Her stores were opened, and this firmament 
Of hell should spout her cataracts of fire, 
Impendent horrors, threatening hideous fall 
One day u^Don our heads ; while we perhaps, 
Designing or exhorting glorious war. 
Caught in a fiery tempest, shall be hurled, 180 

Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey 
Of racking whirlwinds, or forever sunk 
Under yon boiling ocean, wrapped in chains, 
There to converse with everlasting groans, 
Unre spited, unpitied, and unreprieved. 
Ages of hopeless end ? This would be worse. 
War, therefore, open or concealed, alike 
My voice dissuades ; for what can force or guile 
With him, or who deceive his mind, whose eye 
Views all things at one view ? He from heaven's 
highth 190 

All these our motions vain sees and derides, 
Not more almighty to resist our might. 
Than wise to frustrate all our plots and wiles. 
Shall we, then, live thus vile, the race of heaven 



BOOK II] PARADISE LOST 49 

Thus trampled, thus expelled, to sujffer here 

Chains and these torments ? Better these than worse, 

By my advice ; since fate inevitable 

Subdues us, and omnipotent decree, ' 

The Victor's will. To suffer, as to do, 

Our strength is equal ; nor the law unjust 200 

That so ordains. This was at first resolved. 

If we were wise, against so great a foe 

Contending, and so doubtful what might fall. 

I laugh, when those who at the spear are bold 

And venturous, if that fail them, shrink, and fear 

What yet they know must follow — to endure 

Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain. 

The sentence of their conqueror. This is now 

Our doom ; which, if we can sustain and bear. 

Our Supreme Foe in time may much remit 210 

His anger, and perhaps, thus far removed. 

Not mind us not offending, satisfied 

With what is punished ; whence these raging fires 

Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames. 

Our purer essence then will overcome 

Their noxious vapor ; or, inured, not feel ; 

Or, changed at length, and to the place conformed 

In temper and in nature, will receive 

Familiar the fierce heat ; and, void of pain, 



60 PARADISE LOST [book ii 

This horror will grow mild, this darkness light ; 220 

Besides what hope the never-ending flight 

Of future days may bring, what chance, what change 

Worth waiting ; s'ince our present lot appears 

For happy though but ill, for ill not worst, 

If we procure not to ourselves more woe." 

Thus Belial, with words clothed in reason's garb, 
Counseled ignoble ease and peaceful sloth. 
Not peace ; and after him thus Mammon spake : — 

" Either" to disenthrone the King of Heaven 
We war, if war be best, or to regain 230 

Our own right lost. Him to unthrone we then 
May hope, when everlasting Fate shall yield 
To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife. 
The former, vain to hope, argues as vain 
The latter ; for what place can be for us 
Within heaven's bound, unless heaven's Lord Supreme 
We overpower ? Suppose he shoiUd relent, 
And publish grace to all, on promise made 
Of new subjection ; with what eyes could we 
Stand in his presence humble, and receive 240 

Strict laws imposed, to celebrate his throne 
With warbled hymns, and to his G-odhead sing 
Forced hallelujahs, while he lordly sits 
Our envied sovran, and his altar breathes 



BOOK II] PARADISE LOST 51 

Ambrosial odors and ambrosial flowers, 

Our servile offerings ? This must be our task 

In heaven, this our delight. How wearisome 

Eternity so spent in worship paid 

To whom we hate ! Let us not, then, pursue 

By force impossible, by leave obtained 250 

Unacceptable, though in heaven, our state 

Of splendid vassalage ; but rather seek 

Our own good from ourselves, and from our own 

Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess, 

Free, and to none accountable, preferring 

Hard liberty before the easy yoke 

Of servile pomp. Our greatness will appear 

Then most conspicuous when great things of small, 

Useful of liurtful, prosperous of adverse. 

We can create, and in what place soe'er 260 

Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain 

Through labor and endurance. This deep world 

Of darkness do we dread ? How oft amidst 

Thick clouds and dark doth heaven's all-ruling Sire 

Choose to reside, his glory unobscured. 

And with the majesty of darkness round 

Covers his throne, from whence deep thunders roar 

Mustering their rage, and heaven resembles hell ! 

As he our darkness, cannot we his light 



52 PARADISE LOST [book ii 

Imitate when we please ? This desert soil 270 

Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold ; 

Nor want we skill or art from whence to raise 

Magnificence ; and what can heaven show more ? 

Our torments also may in length of time 

Become our elements, these piercing fires 

As soft as now severe, our temper changed 

Into their temper ; which must needs remove 

The sensible of pain. All things invite 

To peaceful counsels, and the settled state 

Of order, how in safety best we may 280 

Compose our present evils, with regard 

Of what we are and where, dismissing quite 

All thoughts of war. Ye have what I advise." 

He scarce had finished, when such murmur° filled 
The assembly as when hollow rocks retain 
The sound of blustering winds, which all night long 
Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull 
Seafaring men o'erwatched, whose bark by chance, 
Or pinnace, anchors in a craggy bay 
After the tempest. Such applause was heard 290 

As Mammon ended ; and his sentence pleased, 
Advising peace ; for such another field 
They dreaded worse than hell, so much the fear 
Of thunder and the sword of Michael 



BOOK II] PARADISE LOST 63 

Wrought still witliin them ; and no less desire 
To found this nether empire, which might rise 
By policy, and long process of time, 
In emulation opposite to heaven. 
Which when Beelzebub perceived, than whom, 
Satan except, none higher sat, with grave 300 

Aspect he rose, and in his rising seemed 
A pillar of state. Deep on his front engraven 
Deliberation sat, and public care ; 
And princely counsel in his face yet shone, 
Majestic, though in ruin. Sage he stood. 
With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear 
The weight of mightiest monarchieso His look 
Drew audience and attention still as night 
Or summer's noontide air, while thus he spake : — 
" Thrones° and Imperial Powers, Offspring of 
Heaven, 310 

Ethereal Virtues ! or these titles now 
Must we renounce, and, changing style, be called 
Princes of hell ? for so the popular vot.e 
Inclines, here to continue, and build up here 
A growing empire ; doubtless ! while we dream, 
And know not that the King of Heaven hath doomed 
This place our dungeon, not our safe retreat 
Beyond his potent arm, to live exempt 



54 PARADISE LOST [book n 

From heaven's high jurisdiction, in new league 

Banded against his throne, but to remain 320 

In strictest bondage, though thus far removed, 

Under the inevitable curb, reserved 

His captive multitude. For he, be sure, 

In highth or depth, still first and last will reign 

Sole king, and of his kingdom lose no part 

By our revolt ; but over hell extend 

His empire, and with iron scepter rule 

Us here, as with his golden those in heaven. 

What sit we then projecting peace and war ? 

War hath determined us, and foiled with loss 330 

Irreparable ; terms of peace yet none 

Vouchsafed or sought ; for what peace will be given 

To us enslaved, but custody severe, 

And stripes, and arbitrary punishment 

Inflicted ? and what peace can we return, 

But, to our power, hostility and hate. 

Untamed reluctance, and revenge, though slow. 

Yet ever plotting how the Conqueror least 

May reap his conquest, and may least rejoice 

In doing what we most in suffering feel ? 340 

Nor will occasion want, nor shall we need 

With dangerous expedition to invade 

Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege, 



BOOK ii] PARADISE LOST 55 

Or ambush from the deep. What if we find 

Some easier enterprise ?° There is a place 

(If ancient and prophetic fame in heaven 

Err not) — another world, the happy seat 

Of some new race called Man, about this time 

To be created like to us, though less 

In power and excellence, but favored more 350 

Of him who rules above : so was his will 

Pronounced among the gods, and by an oath, 

That shook heaven's whole circumference, confirmed. 

Thither let us bend all our thoughts, to learn 

What creatures there inhabit, of what mold 

Or substance, how endued, and what their power, 

And where their weakness, how attempted best, 

By force or subtlety. Though heaven be shut, 

And heaven's high Arbitrator sit secure 

In his own strength, this place may lie exposed, 360 

The utmost border of his kingdom, left 

To their defence who hold it : here perhaps 

Some advantageous act may be achieved 

By sudden onset, either with hell-fire 

To waste his whole creation, or possess 

All as our own, and drive as we were driven, 

The puny habitants ; or, if not drive. 

Seduce them to our party, that their God 



56 PARADISE LOST [book n 

May prove their foe, and with repenting hand 

Abolish his own works. This would surpass 370 

Common revenge, and interrupt his joy 

In our confusion, and our joy upraise 

In his disturbance ; when his darling sons, 

Hurled headlong to partake with us, shall curse 

Their frail original and faded bliss — 

Faded so soon. Advise if this be worth 

Attempting, or to sit in darkness here 

Hatching vain empires ! " Thus Beelzebub 

Pleaded his devilish counsel, first devised 

By Satan, and in part proposed ; for whence, 380 

But from the author of all ill could spring 

So deep a malice, to confound the race 

Of mankind in one root, and earth with hell 

To mingle and involve ; done all to spite 

The great Creator ? But their spite still serves 

His glory to augment. The, bold design 

Pleased highly those Infernal States, and joy 

Sparkled in all their eyes. With full assent 

They vote ; whereat his speech he thus renews : — 

" Well° have ye judged, well ended long debate, 390 
Synod of gods ! and, like to what ye are, 
Great things resolved ; which from the lowest deep 
Will once more lift us up, in spite of fate, 



BOOK II] PARADISE LOST 67 

Nearer our ancient seat ; perhaps in view 

Of those bright confines, whence with neighboring 

arms 
And opportune excursion, we may chance 
Reenter heaven ; or else in some mild zone 
Dwell, not unvisited of heaven's fair light, 
Secure, and at the brightening orient beam 
Purge off this gloom : the soft delicious air, 400 

To heal the scar of these corrosive fires. 
Shall breathe her balm. But first, whom shall we send 
In search of this new world ? Whom shall we find 
Sufficient ? Who shall tempt with wandering feet 
The dark, unbottomed, infinite abyss, 
And through the palpable obscure, find out 
His uncouth way, or spread his aery flight, 
Upborne with indefatigable wings 
Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive 409 

The happy isle° ? What strength, what art, can then 
Suffice, or what evasion bear him safe 
Through the strict senteries and stations thick 
Of angels watching round ? Here, he had need 
All circumspection ; and we now no less 
Choice in our suffrage ; for, on whom we send. 
The weight of all, and our last hope, relies." 
This said, he sat ; and expectation held 



58 PARADISE LOST [book ii 

His look suspense, ° awaiting who appeared 
To second, or oppose, or undertake 
The perilous attempt. But all sat mute, 420 

Pondering the danger with deep thoughts ; and each 
In other's countenance read his own dismay, 
Astonished. None among the choice and prime 
Of those heaven-warring champions could be found 
So hardy as to proffer or accept, 
Alone, the dreadful voyage ; till at last 
Satan, whom now transcendent glory raised 
Above his fellows, with monarchal pride 
Conscious of highest worth, unmoved thus spake : — 

" Progeny of Heaven ! Empyreal Thrones ! 430 
With reason hath deep silence and demur 
Seized us, though undismayed. Long is the way 
And hard, that out of hell leads up to light. 
Our prison strong, this huge convex of fire, 
Outrageous to devour, immures us round 
Ninefold ; and gates of burning adamant, 
Barred over us, prohibit all egress'. 
These passed, if any pass, the void° profound 
Of unessential night receives him next, 
Wide gaping, and with utter loss of being 440 

Threatens him, plunged in that abortive gulf. 
If thence he scape into whatever world | 



BOOK II] PARADISE LOST 59 

Or unknown region, what remains liim less 

Than unknown dangers, and as hard escape ? 

But I should ill become this throne, peers, 

And this imperial sovranty, adorned 

With splendor, armed with power, if aught proposed 

And judged of public moment, in the shape 

Of difficulty or danger, could deter 

Me from attempting. Wherefore do I assume 450 

These royalties, and not refuse to reign, 

Refusing to accept as great a share 

Of hazard as of honor, due alike 

To him who reigns, and so much to him due 

Of hazard more as he above the rest 

High honored sits ? Go, therefore, mighty powers. 

Terror of heaven, though fallen ; intend" at home. 

While here shall be our home, what best may ease 

The present misery, and render hell 

More tolerable (if there be cure or charm 460 

To respite, or deceive, or slack the pain 

Of this ill mansion) ; intermit no watch 

Against a wakeful foe, while I abroad 

Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek 

Deliverance for us all : this enterprise 

None shall partake with me/' Thus saying, rose 

The monarch, and prevented all reply ; 



60 PARADISE LOST [book ii 

Prudent lest, from his resolution raised, 

Others among the chief might offer now, 

Certain to be refused, what erst they feared, 470 

And, so refused, might in opinion stand 

His rivals, winning cheap the high repute 

Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they 

Dreaded not more the adventure than his voice 

Forbidding ; and at once with him they rose. 

Their rising all at once was as the sound 

Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend 

With awful reverence prone, and as a god 

Extol him equal to the Highest in heaven. 

Nor failed they to express how much they praised 480 

That for the general safety he despised 

His own ; for neither do the spirits damned 

Lose all their virtue ; lest bad men should boast 

Their specious deeds on earth, which glory excites, 

Or close ambition varnished o'er with zeal. 

Thus they their doubtful consultations dark 
Ended, rejoicing in their matchless chief : 
As, when from mountain tops the dusky clouds 
Ascending, while the north wind sleeps, o'erspread 
Heaven's cheerful face, the louring element 490 

Scowls o'er the darkened landskip snow or shower ; 
If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet. 



BOOK ii] PARADISE LOST 61 

Extend his evening beam, the fields revive, 

The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds 

Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings. 

shame to men ! Devil with devil damned 

Firm concord holds : men only disagree 

Of creatures rational, though under hope 

Of heavenly grace, and, God proclaiming peace, 

Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife 500 

Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, 

Wasting the earth, each other to destroy ; 

As if (which might induce us to accord) 

Man had not hellish foes enow besides. 

That day and night for his destruction wait. 

The Stygian° council thus dissolved, and forth 
In order came the grand infernal peers : 
Midst came their mighty paramount, and seemed 
Alone the antagonist of heaven, nor less 
Than hell's dread emperor, with pomp supreme, 510 
And godlike imitated state : him round 
A globe of fiery seraphim enclosed 
With bright emblazonry, and horrent arms. 
Then of their session ended they bid cry° 
With trumpets' regal sound the great result : 
Toward the four winds four speedy cherubim 
Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy,° 



62 PARADISE LOST [book n 

By herald's voice explained : the hollow abyss 

Heard far and wide, and all the host of hell 

With deafening shout returned them loud acclaim. 520 

Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat raised 

By false presumptuous hope, the ranged powers 

Disband ; and, wandering, each his several way 

Pursues, as inclination or sad choice 

Leads him perplexed, where he may likeliest find 

Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain 

The irksome hours, till his great chief return. 

Part on the plain, or in the air sublime, 

Upon the wing, or in swift race contend, 

As at the Olympian" games or Pythian fields ; 530 

Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal 

With rapid wheels, or fronted brig'ades form : 

As when, to warn proud cities, war appears 

Waged in the troubled" sky, and armies rush 

To battle in the clouds ; before each van 

Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears 

Till thickest legions close ; with feats of arms 

From either end of heaven the welkin burns. 

Others, with vast Typhoean° rage, more fell, 

Eend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air 540 

In whirlwind ; hell scarce holds the wild uproar : 

As when Alcides,° from (Echalia crowned 



BOOK n] PARADISE LOST 63 

With conquest, felt the envenomed robe, and tore 

Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines. 

And Lichas from the top of (Eta threw 

Into the Euboic sea. Others, more mild, 

E-etreated in a silent valley, sing 

With notes angelical to many a harp 

Their own heroic deeds, and hapless fall 

By doom of battle, and complain that Fate 550 

Free Virtue should enthrall to Force or Chance. 

Their song was partial ; but the harmony . 

(What could it less when spirits immortal sing ?) 

Suspended hell, and took with ravishment 

The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet 

(For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense). 

Others apart sat on a hill retired. 

In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high 

Of providence," foreknowledge, will, and fate, 

Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, 560 

And found no end, in wandering mazes lost. 

Of good and evil much they argued then. 

Of happiness and final misery. 

Passion and apathy, and glory and shame : 

Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy ! 

Yet, with a pleasing sorcery, could charm 

Pain for a while, or anguish, and excite 



64 PARADISE LOST [book ii 

Fallacious hope, or arm the obdured breast 

With stubborn patience as with triple steel. 

Another part, in squadrons and gross bands, 570 

On bold adventure to discover wide 

That dismal world, if any clime perhaps 

Might yield them easier habitation, bend 

Four ways their flying march, along the banks 

Of four infernar rivers, that disgorge 

Into the burning lake their baleful streams : 

Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate ; 

Sad Acheron, of sorrow, black and deep ; 

Cocytus, named of lamentation loud 

Heard on the rueful stream ; fierce Phlegethon 580 

Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. 

Far off from these, a slow and silent stream, 

Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls 

Her watery labyrinth ; whereof who drinks. 

Forthwith his former state and being forgets, 

Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. 

Beyond this flood a frozen continent 

Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms 

Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land 

Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems 590 

Of ancient pile ; all else deep snow and ice, 

A gulf profound as that Serbonian° bog 



BOOK ii] PARADISE LOST 65 

Betwixt Damiata° and mount Casius old, 
Where armies whole have sunk ; the parching air 
Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire. 
Thither, by harpy-footed furies haled, 
At certain revolutions all the damned 
Are brought ; and feel by turns the bitter change 
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce. 
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice 600 

Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine, 
Immovable, infixed, and frozen round 
Periods of time ; thence hurried back to fire. 
They ferry over this Lethean sound 
Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment. 
And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach 
The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose 
In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe. 
All in one moment, and so near the brink ; 
But Fate withstands, and, to oppose the attempt, 610 
Medusa° with Gorgonian terror guards 
The ford, and of itself the water flies 
All taste of living wight, as once it fled 
The lip 'of Tantalus.° Thus roving on 
In confused march forlorn, the adventurous bauds, 
With shuddering horror pale, and eyes aghast, 
Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found 
p 



66 PARADISE LOST [book n 

No rest. Through many a dark and dreary vale 
They passed, and many a region dolorous, 
O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, 620 

Eocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of 

death, 
A universe of death ! which God by curse 
Created evil, for evil only good ; 
Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds, 
Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things. 
Abominable, inutterable, and worse 
Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived, 
Gorgons,° and hydras, and chimeras dire. 

Meanwhile the adversary of God and man, 
Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design, 630 
Puts on swift wings, and towards the gates of hell 
Explores his solitary flight : sometimes 
He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left ; 
Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars 
Up to the fiery concave towering high. 
As when far off at sea a fleet descried 
Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds 
Close sailing from Bengala,° or the isles 
Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring 
Their spicy drugs ; they on the trading flood, 640 

Through the wide Ethiopian^ to the Cape, 



BOOK II] PARADISE LOST 67 

Ply stemming nightly toward the pole : so seemed 

Far off the flying fiend. At last appear 

Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof, 

And thrice threefold the gates ; three folds were brass ; 

Three iron, three of adamantine rock. 

Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire, 

Yet unconsiimed. Before the gates there sat 

On either side a formidable shape. 

The one seemed woman to the waist, and fair ; 650 

But ended foul in many a scaly fold 

Voluminous and vast — a serpent armed 

With mortal sting. About her middle round 

A cry of hell-hounds never-ceasing barked 

With wide Cerberean° mouths full loud, and rung 

A hideous peal . . . Far less abhorred than these 

Vexed Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts 660 

Calabria ° from the hoarse Trinacrian shore ; 

Nor uglier follow the night-hag,° when, called 

In secret, riding through the air she comes. 

Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance 

With Lapland witches, while the laboring moon 

Eclipses at their charms. The other shape — 

If shape it might be called that shape had none 

Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb; 

Or substance might be called that shadow seemed, 



6S PARADISE LOST [book n 

For each seemed either — black it stood as night, 670 

Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell, 

And shook a dreadful dart : what seemed his head 

The likeness of a kingly crown had on. 

Satan was now at hand, and from his seat 

The monster moving onward came as fast 

With horrid strides : hell trembled as he strode. 

The undaunted fiend what this might be admired — 

Admired, not feared (God and his Son except. 

Created thing naught valued he, nor shunned) ; 

And with disdainful look thus first began : — 680 

" Whence, and what art thou, execrable shape, 
That darest, though grim and terrible, advance 
Thy miscreated front athwart my way 
To yonder gates ? Through them I mean to pass, 
That be assured, without leave asked of thee. 
Retire ! or taste thy folly, and learn by proof, 
Hell-born, not to contend with spirits of heaven ! " 

To whom the goblin full of wrath replied : — 
" Art thou that traitor-angel, art thou he, 689 

Who first broke peace in heaven, and faith, till then 
Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms 
Drew after him the third part of heaven's sons. 
Conjured against the Highest ; for which both thou 
And they, outcast from God, are here condemned 



BOOK 11] PARADISE LOST 69 

To waste eternal days in woe and pain ? 

And reckonest thou thyself with spirits of heaven, 

Hell^doomed, and breathest defiance here and scorn, 

Where I reign king, and, to enrage thee more. 

Thy king and lord ? Back to thy punishment. 

False fugitive ! and to thy speed add wings, 700 

Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue 

Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart, 

Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before ! " 

So spake the grisly terror ; and in shape. 
So speaking and so threatening, grew tenfold 
More dreadful and deform. On the other side, 
Incensed with indignation, Satan stood 
Unterrified, and like a comet° burned, 
That fires the length of Ophiuchus° huge 
In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair 710 

Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head 
Leveled his deadly aim ; their fatal hands 
No second stroke intend ; and such a frown 
Each cast at the other as when two black clouds. 
With heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on 
Over the Caspian,*^ then stand front to front 
Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow 
To join their dark encounter in mid air: 
So frowned the mighty combatants that hell 



70 PARADISE LOST [book ii 

Grew darker at their frown; so matched they stood; 720 

For never but once° more was either like 

To meet so great a foe. And now great deeds 

Had been achieved, whereof all hell had rung, 

Had not the snaky sorceress, that sat 

Fast by hell-gate and kept the fatal key, 

Eisen, and with hideous outcry rushed between. 

" father ! what intends thy hand," she cried, 
" Against thy only son ?° What fury, son, 
Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart 
Against thy father's head ? and knowest for whom ! 730 
For him who sits above, and laughs the while 
At thee ordained his drudge to execute 
Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids — 
His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both ! '^ 

She spake, and at her words the hellish pest 
Forbore ; then these to her Satan returned : — 

" So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange 
Thou interposest, that my sudden hand. 
Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds 
What it intends, till first I know of thee 740 

What thing thou art, thus double-formed, and why. 
In this infernal vale first met, thou callest 
Me father, and that phantasm callest my son. 
I know thee not, nor ever saw till now 



BOOK II] PARADISE LOST 71 

Sight more detestable than him. and thee.'^ 

To whom thus the portress° of hell-gate replied : — 
" Hast thou forgot me, then, and do I seem 
Now in thine eye so foul ? — once deemed so fair 
In heaven, when at the assembly, and in sight 
Of all the seraphim with thee combined 750 

In bold conspiracy against heaven's King, 
All on a sudden miserable pain 
Surprised thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum 
In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast 
Threw forth, till on the left side° opening wide, 
Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright, 
Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess armed. 
Out of thy head I sprung. Amazement seized 
All the host of heaven ; back they recoiled,° afraid 
At first, and called me Sin, and for a sign 760 

Portentous held me ; but, familiar grown, 
I pleased, and with attractive graces won 
The most averse, thee chiefly ; who, full oft 
Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing, 
Becamest enamored . . . Meanwhile war arose, 
And fields were fought in heaven ; wherein remained 
(For what could else ! ) to our almighty Foe 
Clear victory ; to our part, loss and rout 7;o 

Through all the Empyrean. Down they fell, 



72 PARADISE LOST [book ii 

Driven headlong from the pitch of heaven, down 

Into this deep ; and in the general fall 

I also ; at which time this powerful key° 

Into my hand was given, with charge to keep 

These gates forever shut, which none can pass 

Without my opening. Pensive here I sat 

Alone ; . . . but he, my inbred enemy, 785 

Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart. 

Made to destroy. I fled,° and cried out Death ! 

Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed 

From all her caves, and back resounded Death ! 

I fled, but he pursued ; . . • and, swifter far, 791 

Me overtook, his mother, all dismayed. . . . 

These yelling monsters,° that with ceaseless cry 795 

Surround me, as thou sawest, hourly conceived 

And hourly born with sorrow infinite 

To me, . . . with conscious terrors vex me round, 801 

That rest or intermission none I find. 

Before mine eyes in opposition sits 

Grim Death,° my son and foe, who sets them on, 

And me, his parent, would full soon devour 

For want of other prey, but that he knows 

His end with mine involved, and knows that I 

Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane. 

Whenever that sh9uld be ; so Fate pronounced. 



BOOK II] PARADISE LOST 73 

But thou, father ! I forewarn thee, shun 8io 

His deadly arrow ; neither vainly hope 
To be invulnerable^ in those bright arms, 
Though tempered heavenly ; for that mortal dint, 
Save he who reigns above, none can resist." 

She finished ; and the subtle fiend his lore 815 

Soon learned, now milder, and thus answered smooth : — 
" Dear daughter ! — since thou claimst me for thy sire, 
And my fair son here show'st me, . . . know 
I come no enemy, but to set free 822 

From out this dark and dismal house of pain 
Both him and thee, and all the heavenly host 
Of spirits that, in our just pretences armed, 
Fell with us from on high. From them I go 
This uncouth errand sole, and one for all 
Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread 
The unfounded deep, and through the void immense 
To search with wandering quest a place foretold 830 
Should be, and, by concurring signs, ere now 
Created vast and round — a place of bliss 
In the purlieus of heaven ; and, therein placed, 
A race of upstart creatures, to supply 
Perhaps our vacant room, though more removed, 
Lest heaven, surcharged with potent multitude, 
Might hap to move new broils. Be this, or aught 



74 PARADISE LOST [book ii 

Than this more secret, now designed, I haste 

To know ; and, this once known, shall soon return 

And bring ye to the place where thou and Death 840 

Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen 

Wing silently the buxom air, imbalmed 

With odors. There ye shall be fed and filled 

Immeasurably : all things shall be your prey." ° 

He ceased; for both seemed highly pleased, and Death 
Grinned horrible a ghastly smile, to hear 
His famine should be filled, and blessed his maw 
Destined to that good hour. No less rejoiced 
His mother bad, and thus bespake her sire : — 

" The key of this infernal pit, by due, 850 

And by command of heaven's all-powerful King, 
I keep, by him forbidden to unlock 
These adamantine gates : against all force 
Death ready stands to interpose his dart, 
Fearless to be o'ermatched by living might. 
But what owe I to his commands above. 
Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down, 
Into this gloom of Tartarus profound. 
To sit in hateful office here confined, 
Inhabitant of heaven and heavenly born, 860 

Here in perpetual agony and pain. 
With terrors and with clamors compassed round ? . . . 



BOOK ii] PARADISE LOST 75 

Thou art my father ; thou my author ; thou 

My being gavest me : whom should I obey 

But thee ? whom follow ? Thou wilt bring me soon 

To that new world of light and bliss, among 

The gods who live at ease, where I shall reign 

At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems 

Thy daughter and thy darling, without end." 870 

Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, 
Sad instrument of all our woe, she took ; 
And, towards the gate rolling her bestial train, 
Forthwith the huge portcullis high up-drew. 
Which, but herself, not all the Stygian powers 
Could once have moved ; then in the keyhole turns 
The intricate wards, and every bolt and bar 
Of massy iron or solid rock with ease 
Unfastens. On a sudden open fly, « 
With impetuous recoil and jarring sound,° 880 

The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate 
Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook 
Of Erebus. She opened ; but to shut 
Excelled her power : the gates wide open° stood, 
That with extended wings a bannered host, 
Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through 
With horse and chariots ranked in loose array : 
So wide they stood, and like a furnace-mouth 



76 PARADISE LOST [book ii 

Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame. 

Before their eyes in sudden view appear® 890 

The secrets of the hoary deep, a dark 

Illimitable ocean, without bound, 

Without dimensions; where length, breadth, and 

highth, 
And time, and place, are lost ; where eldest Night 
And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold 
Eternal anarchy amidst the noise 
Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. 
For Hot,° Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions fierce. 
Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring 
Their embryon atoms : they, around the flag 900 

Of each, his faction, in their several clans, 
Light-armed or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift or slow, 
Swarm populous, unnumbered as the sands 
Of Barca° or Cyrene's torrid soil, 
Levied to side with warring winds, and poise 
Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere, 
He rules a moment. Chaos umpire sits, 
And by decision more embroils the fray 
By which he reigns. Next him, high arbiter. 
Chance governs all. Into this wild abyss, 910 

The womb of Nature and perhaps her grave. 
Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire. 



BOOK n] PARADISE LOST 77 

But all these in their pregnant causes mixed 

Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight, 

Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain 

His dark materials to create more worlds — 

Into this wild abyss the wary fiend 

Stood on the brink of hell and looked a while, 

Pondering his voyage° ; for no narrow frith 

He had to cross. Nor was his ear less pealed 920 

With noises loud and ruinous (to compare 

Great things with small) than when Bellona° storms 

With all her battering engines, bent to raze 

Some capital city ; or less than if this frame 

Of heaven were falling, and these elements 

The steadfast earth. At last his sail-broad vans 

He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke 

Uplifted spurns the ground ; thence many a league, 

As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides 930 

Audacious ; but, that seat soon failing, meets 

A vast vacuity : all unawares. 

Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops° 

Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour 

Down had been falling, had not, by ill chance, 

The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud, 

Instinct with fire and niter, hurried him 

As many miles aloft. That fury stayed, ^ 



78 PARADISE LOST [book ii 

Quenched in a boggy syrtis,° neither sea 

Nor good dry land — nigh foundered, on he fares, 940 

Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, 

Half flying : behoves him now both oar and sail. 

As when a griffin,° through the wilderness 

With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale 

Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth 

Had from his wakeful custody purloined 

The guarded gold ; so eagerly the fiend 

O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare. 

With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, 

And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. 950 

At length a universal hubbub° wild 

Of stunning sounds and voices all confused. 

Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear 

With loudest vehemence. Thither he plies 

Undaunted, to meet there whatever power 

Or spirit of the nethermost abyss 

Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask 

Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies 

Bordering on light ; when straight behold the throne 

Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread 960 

Wide on the wasteful deep ! With him enthroned 

Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things. 

The consort of his reign ; and by them stood .| 



BOOK II] PARADISE LOST 79 

Orcus° and Ades, and the dreaded name 
Of Demogorgon ; Rumor" next, and Chance, 
And Tumult, and Confusion, all embroiled. 
And Discord with a thousand various mouths. 

To whom Satan, turning boldly, thus : — "Ye powers 
And spirits of this nethermost abyss, 
Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy 970 

With purpose to explore or to disturb 
The secrets of your realm ; but, by constraint 
Wandering this darksome desert, as my way 
Lies through your spacious empire up to light. 
Alone and without guide, half lost, I seek 
What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds 
Confine with heaven ; or, if some other place. 
From your dominion won, the Ethereal King 
Possesses lately, thither to arrive 
I travel this profound. ° Direct my course. 980 

Directed, no mean recompense it brings 
To your behoof, if I that region lost. 
All usurpation thence expelled, reduce 
To her original darkness and your sway 
(Which is my present journey), and once more 
Erect° the standard there of ancient Night. 
Yours be the advantage all, mine the revenge ! '* 

Thus Satan ; and him thus the anarch° old, 



80 PARADISE LOST [book ii 

With faltering speech and visage incomposed, 989 

Answered: — "I know thee, stranger, who thou art, 

That mighty leading angel, who of late 

Made head against heaven's King, though overthrown. 

I saw and heard ; for such a numerous host 

Fled not in silence through the frighted deep, 

With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout. 

Confusion worse confounded ; and heaven gates 

Poured out by millions her victorious bands 

Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here 

Keep residence ; if all I can° will serve 

That little which is left so to defend, 1000 

Encroached on still through our intestine broils, 

Weakening the scepter of old Night : first, hell, 

Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath ; 

Now lately heaven and earth, another world. 

Hung o'er my realm, linked in a golden chain 

To that side heaven from whence your legions fell ! 

If that way be your walk, you have not far ; 

So much the nearer danger. Go, and speed ! 

Havoc and spoil and ruin are my gain." 

He ceased ; and Satan stayed not to reply, loio 

But, glad that now his sea should find a shore, 
With fresh alacrity and force renewed 
Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire, 



BOOK II] PARADISE LOST 81 

Into the wild expanse, and through the shock 

Of fighting elements, on all sides round 

Environed, wins his way ; harder beset 

And more endangered than when Argo° passed 

Through Bosphorus betwixt the justling rocks,° 

Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned 

Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steered. 1020 

So he with difficulty^ and labor hard 

Moved on ; with difficulty and labor he ; 

But, he once passed, soon after, when man fell, 

Strange alteration ! Sin and Death amain, 

Following his track, such was the will of Heaven, 

Paved after him a broad and beaten way 

Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf 

Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length, 

From hell continued, reaching the utmost° orb 

Of this frail wprld ; by which the spirits perverse 1030 

With easy intercourse pass to and fro 

To tempt or punish mortals, except whom 

God and good angels guard by special grace. 

But now at last the sacred influence 
Of light appears, and from the walls of heaven 
Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night 
A glimmering dawn. Here Nature first begins 
Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire, 



82 PARADISE LOST [book n 

As from her utmost works, a broken foe, 

With tumult less and with less hostile din ; 1040 

That Satan with less toil, and now with ease, 

Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light, 

And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds 

Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn ; 

Or in the emptier waste, resembling air, 

Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold 

Far off the empyreal heaven, extended wide 

In circuit, undetermined square or round. 

With opal towers and battlements adorned 

Of living sapphire, once his native seat ; 1050 

And, fast by, hanging in a golden chain. 

This pendent° world, in bigness as a star 

Of smallest magnitude close by the moon. 

Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge, 

Accursed, and in a cursed hour he hies. 



END OF BOOK H 



PARADISE LOST 



BOOK III 

THE AKGUMENT 

God, sitting on his throne, sees Satan flying toward this 
world, then newly created ; shows him to the Son, who sat at 
his right hand ; foretells the success of Satan in perverting 
mankind ; clears his own justice and wisdom from all imputa- 
tion, having created man free, and able enough to have with- 
stood his tempter; yet declares his purpose of grace toward 
him, in regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, 
hut by him seduced. The Son of God renders praises to his 
Father for the manifestation of his gracious purpose toward 
man ; but God again declares that grace cannot be extended 
toward man without the satisfaction of divine justice ; man hath 
offended the majesty of God by aspiring to godhead, and there- 
fore with all his progeny devoted to death must die, unless 
some one can be found sufficient to answer for his offence, and 
undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself 
a ransom for man ; the Father accepts him, ordains his incarna- 
tion, pronounces his exaltation above all names in Heaven and 
Earth, commands all the angels to adore him. They obey, and 
by hymning to their harps in full choir, celebrate the Father 
and the Son. Meanwhile Satan alights upon the bare convex 
of this world's outermost orb ; where wandering he first finds 
a place, since called the Limbo of Vanity ; what persons and 



84 PARADISE LOST 

things fly up thither ; thence comes to the gate of Heaven, 
described ascending by stairs, and the waters above the firma- 
ment that flow about it. His passage thence to the orb of the 
sun : he finds there Uriel, the regent of that orb, but first 
changes himself into the shape of a meaner angel ; and pretend- 
ing a zealous desire to behold the new creation, and man whom 
God had placed there, inquires of him the place of his habita- 
tion, and is directed : alights first on Mount Niphates. 



BOOK IV 

THE ARGUMENT 

Satan, now in prospect of Eden, and nigh the place where he 
must now attempt the bold enterprise which he undertook alone 
against God and man, falls into many doubts with himself, and 
many passions, — fear, envy, and despair ; but at length con- 
firms himself in evil ; journeys on to Paradise, whose outward 
prospect and situation is described ; overleaps the bounds ; sits in 
the shape of a cormorant on the Tree of Life, as the highest in the 
garden, to look about him. The garden described ; Satan's first 
sight of Adam and Eve ; his wonder at their excellent form and 
happy state, but with resolution to work their fall ; overhears 
their discourse ; thence gathers that the Tree of Knowledge was 
forbidden them to eat of, under penalty of death ; and thereon 
intends to found his temptation, by seducing them to trans- 
gress ; then leaves them awhile, to know further of their state 
by some other means. Meanwhile Uriel, descending on a sun- 
beam, warns Gabriel, who had in charge the gate of Paradise, 



PARADISE LOST 85 

that some evil spirit had escaped the deep, and passed at noon 
by his sphere in the shape of a good angel down to Paradise, 
discovered after by his furious gestures in the mount. Gabriel 
promises to find him ere morning. Night coming on, Adam and 
Eve discourse of going to their rest : their bower described ; 
their evening worship. Gabriel drawing forth his bands of 
night-watch to walk the rounds of Paradise, appoints two strong 
angels to Adam's bower, lest the evil spirit should be there 
doing some harm to Adam or Eve sleeping ; there they find him 
at the ear of Eve, tempting her in a dream, and bring him, 
though unwillingly, to Gabriel ; by whom questioned, he scorn- 
fully answers ; prepares resistance \ but, hindered by a sign from 
Heaven, flies out of Paradise. 



BOOK V 

THE ARGUMENT 

Morning approached. Eve relates to Adam her troublesome 
dream ; he likes it not, yet comforts her : they come forth to 
their day labors : their morning hymn at the door of their 
bower. God, to render man inexcusable, sends Raphael to 
admonish him of his obedience, of his free estate, of his enemy 
near at hand, who he is, and why his enemy, and whatever else 
may avail Adam to know. Raphael comes down to Paradise ; 
his appearance described ; his coming discerned by Adam afar 
off, sitting at the door of his bower ; he goes out to meet him, 
brings him to his lodge, entertains him with the choicest fruits 
of Paradise got together by Eve ; their discourse at table. 



86 PARADISE LOST 

Eaphael performs his message, minds Adam of his state and of 
his enemy ; relates, at Adam's request, who that enemy is, and 
how he came to be so, beginning from his first revolt in Heaven, 
and the occasion thereof ; how he drew his legions after him to 
the parts of the North, and there incited them to rebel with him, 
persuading all but only Abdiel, a seraph, who in argument 
dissuades and opposes him, then forsakes him. 



BOOK VI 

THE ARGUMENT 

Raphael continues to relate how Michael and Gabriel were 
sent forth to battle against Satan and his angels. The first 
fight described. Satan and his powers retire under night : he 
calls a council ; invents devilish engines, which, in the second 
day's fight, put Michael and his angels to some disorder ; but 
they at length, pulling up mountains, overwhelmed both the 
force and machines of Satan ; yet the tumult not so ending, 
God on the third day sends Messiah his Son, for whom he had 
reserved the glory of that victory. He, in the power of his 
Father, coming to the place, and causing all his legions to stand 
still on either side, with his chariot and thunder driving into the 
midst of his enemies, pursues them, unable to resist, toward the 
wall of Heaven ; which opening, they leap down with horror and 
confusion into the place of punishment prepared for them in the 
deep : Messiah returns with triumph to his Father. 



PARADISE LOST 87 

BOOK VII 

THE ARGUMENT 

Raphael, at the request of Adam, relates how and wherefore 
this world was first created : — that God, after the expelling of 
Satan and his angels out of Heaven, declared his pleasure to 
create another world, and other creatures to dwell therein ; 
sends his Son with glory and attendance of angels to perform 
the work of creation in six days ; the angels celebrate with 
hymns the performance thereof, and his reascension into 
Heaven. 

BOOK VIII 

THE ARGUMENT 

Adam inquires concerning celestial motions, is doubtfully 
answered, and exhorted to search rather things more worthy 
of knowledge. Adam assents, and, still desirous to detain 
Raphael, relates to him what he remembered since his own 
creation — his placing in Paradise ; his talk with God concerning 
solitude and fit society ; his first meeting and nuptials with Eve ; 
his discourse with the angel thereupon, who, after admonitions 
repeated, departs. 



88 PARADISE LOST 

BOOK IX 

THE ARGUMENT 

Satan, having compassed the Earth, with meditated guile 
returns as a mist by night into Paradise ; enters into the ser- 
pent sleeping. Adam and Eve in the morning go forth to their 
labors, which Eve proposes to divide in several places, each 
laboring apart : Adam consents not, alleging the danger lest 
that enemy, of whom they were forewarned, should attempt 
her found alone. Eve, loath to be thought not circumspect or 
firm enough, urges her going apart, the rather desirous to make 
trial of her strength ; Adam at last yields. The serpent finds 
her alone ; his subtle approach, first gazing, then speaking, with 
much flattery extolling Eve above all other creatures. Eve, 
wondering to hear the serpent speak, asks how he attained to 
human speech and such understanding not till now ; the serpent 
answers that by tasting of a certain tree in the garden he 
attained both to speech and reason, till then void of both. Eve 
requires him to bring her to that tree, and finds it to be the Tree 
of Knowledge forbidden. The serpent, now grown bolder, with 
many wiles and arguments induces her at length to eat. She, 
pleased with the taste, deliberates awhile whether to impart 
thereof to Adam or not ; at last brings him of the fruit ; relates 
what persuaded her to eat thereof. Adam, at first amazed, but 
perceiving her lost, resolves, through vehemence of love, to 
perish with her ; and, extenuating the trespass, eats also of the 
fruit. The effects thereof in them both ; they seek to cover their 
nakedness ; then fall to variance and accusation of one another. 



PARADISE LOST 89 

BOOK X 

THE ARGUMENT 

Man's transgression known, the guardian angels forsake 
Paradise, and return up to Heaven to approve their vigilance, 
and are approved ; God declaring that the entrance of Satan 
could not by them be prevented. He sends his Son to judge the 
transgressors, who descends, and gives sentence accordingly ; 
then in pity clothes them both, and reascends. Sin and Death, 
sitting till then at the gates of Hell, by wondrous sympathy 
feeling the success of Satan in this new world, and the sin by 
man there committed, resolve to sit no longer confined in Hell, 
but to follow Satan, their sire, up to the place of man. To 
make the way easier from Hell to this world, to and fro, they 
pave a broad highway or bridge over Chaos, according to the 
track that Satan first made ; then preparing for Earth, they meet 
him, proud of his success, returning to Hell ; their mutual gratu- 
lation. Satan arrives at Pandemonium ; in full assembly relates, 
witii boasting, his success against man ; instead of applause is 
entertained with a general hiss by all his audience, transformed 
with himself also suddenly into serpents, according to his doom 
given in Paradise ; then, deluded with a show of the forbidden 
tree springing up before them, they, greedily reaching to take 
off the fruits, chew dust and bitter ashes. The proceedings of 
Sin and Death : God foretells the final victory of his Son over 
them, and the renewing of all things ; but for the present com- 
mands his angels to make several alterations in the heavens and 



90 PARADISE LOST 

elements. Adam more and more perceiving his fallen condi- 
tion, heavily bewails, rejects the cond element of Eve ; she 
persists, and at length appeases him ; then, to evade the curse 
likely to fall on their offspring, proposes to Adam violent ways, 
which he approves not, but, conceiving better hope, puts her 
in mind of the late promise made them, that her seed should 
be revenged on the serpent, and exhorts her with him to seek 
peace of the offended Deity, by repentance and supplication. 



BOOK XI 

THE ARGUMENT 

The Son of God presents to his Father the prayers of our 
first parents, now repenting, and intercedes for them. God 
accepts them, but declares that they must no longer abide in 
Paradise ; sends Michael with a band of cherubim to dispossess 
them, but first to reveal to Adam future things : Michael's 
coming down. Adam shows to Eve certain ominous signs : he 
discerns Michael's approach ; goes out to meet him : the angel 
denounces their departure. Eve's lamentation. Adam pleads, 
but submits : the angel leads him up to a high hill ; sets before 
him in vision what shall happen till the Flood. 



PARADISE LOST 91 

BOOK XII 

THE ARGUMENT 

The angel Michael continues from the Flood to relate what 
shall succeed ; then, in the mention of Abraham, comes by- 
degrees to explain who that seed of the woman shall be, which 
was promised Adam and Eve in the fall ; his incarnation, death, 
resurrection, and ascension ; the state of the church till his sec- 
ond coming. Adam, greatly satisfied and recomforted by these 
relations and promises, descends the hill with Michael ; wakens 
Eve, who all this while had slept, but with gentle dreams com- 
posed to quietness of mind and submission. Michael in either 
hand leads them out of Paradise, the fiery sw^ord waving behind 
them, and the cherubim taking their stations to guard the place. 



NOTES 



It will be observed that some notes that are usually given are 
omitted. These omitted notes fall under three heads as 
follows : — 

1. Those that may be found in any unabridged dictionary. — 
These notes are not carelessly omitted here. Every word that 
in any way deserves a note has been examined. Whenever the 
dictionary has been found to contain a good note, as, for ex- 
ample, upon the word "Tantalus," B. II., 1. 614, no note has 
been giv( n. 

2. Scripture references. — Many of those usually given have 
been purposely omitted. All Scripture references have been 
patiently examined, and many have been rejected, as they are 
nothing more than the mention of names found in the text of 
Paradise Lost. Only those Scripture references have been 
given that will be of real help in understanding the poem. 
Often the poem itself contains the best "note," as, for example, 
the word "Leviathan," B. I., 11. 200-208. 

3. Classical references. — It seems to the present editor that 
a great hindrance to the study of such poems as Paradise 
Lost is the practice of constantly calling the pupil's attention 
from the study of the poem to some parallel in Homer, Vergil, 

93 



1 

>K I I 



94 NOTES [book 

or Dante. Most teachers will agree that this is likely to pre- 
vent the eager following of the tremendous and often headlong 
action of Milton's mighty universal drama. 

The iDresent editor therefore suggests that the classical refer- 
ences given be let alone during the first study of the poem, and 
that the pupils be allowed to follow without a break the action 
of the poem just as they would listen to a play on the stage. On 
the second reading many of these references will be found use- 
ful in tracing the growth of the thought in Milton's mind, and 
will aid in the interpretation of the poem. 

BOOK I 
Lines 1-4. Man's first disobedience. Genesis ii. and iii. 
4. Greater Man. Christ. 1 Corinthians xv. 21 + . 

6. Heavenly Muse. The muse that inspired Moses. 

7. Oreb (Horeb). Exodus iii. 1 ; Deuteronomy iv. 10-14. 
See Map of Palestine, p. xxxv. 

8. Chosen seed. The Jews, "God's Chosen People." 

9. See Genesis i. 

10. Sion Hill. The southwestern hill of Jerusalem. Encyc. 
Brit.^ XIII., 639. Poetically, the sacred hill of Jerusalem, as 
Helicon was of the Greeks. See Map of Jerusalem, p. xxxv. 

11. Siloa's brook. Brook south of Jerusalem, running 
through the Valley of Gehenna. See Map of Jerusalem, p. xxxv. 

12. Oracle of God. 1 Kings vi. 16. 



■ 



BOOK I] NOTES 95 

14. No middle flight. This is meant literally ; even to the 
highest Heaven and the deepest Hell. 

15. Aonian mount. Mt. Helicon in Boeotia. According to 
Cook, Mt. Parnassus. See Map, p. xxxvii. In short, he means 
that he will leave all the Greek poets far below. Recall themes 
of the Greek poets. 

17-19. Here Milton invokes the aid, not of a muse, but of the 
Holy Spirit itself. That he sincerely believed that Heaven will 
help "the upright heart and pure" is shown in the last six 
lines of Comus, which see. 

21. Brooding. Supposed to mean "moved"; but a clearer 
meaning is given by Milton himself in P. Z., B. VII., 233-242. 
See also Genesis i. 2. 

22-26. Beginning with "what," try to realize the depth of 
Milton's sincerity here. 

24. Eighth. The form used by Milton. 

27-32. Heaven hides not. Psalm 139. 

33-36. Serpent. Genesis iii. 

40. Most High. Isaiah xiv. 12-14. 

50-59. Nine times. Shut your eyes and try to image this. 

57. Witnessed. Gave evidence of. 

59. Ken. The vast range of vision of angels contrasted with 
the limited vision of man. 

61-69. Read over and over, and try to image. 



96 NOTES [book I 

63. Darkness visible. Can you think this ? Job x. 22. 

66-67. Hope never comes. See Dante's Inferno, Longfel- 
low's translation, Canto iii., 9; "All hope abandon, ye who 
enter in." 

69. Ever-burning sulphur. Revelations xx. 10. 

70. Such place. Matthew xxv. 41. 

72. Utter darkness. Outer darkness. See Ezekiel x. 5 ; 
xlii. 1. 

73-74. As far removed. See Fig. 4, p. xxxi. Read p. xix. 

80. Palestine. See Map of, p. xxxv. 

81. Beelzebub. See dictionary and Encyc. Brit. 

93. Thunder. Paradise Lost, B. VI., 763-764. 

104. Battle. Paradise Lost, B. VI. 

106-109. Study these lines as you would some lines in Ver- 
gil, — until you have found the meaning. 

117. Empyreal. Indestructible, imperishable. For detail, 
see Paradise Lost, B. I., 138-140 ; B. VI., 330-353. 

129. Seraphim (poetic plural of seraph). 1. An order of 
celestial beings ranking next above the cherubim in the celes- 
tial hierarchy, and having six wings, represented in Isaiah as 
beside the throne of God, praising him and active in his service. 
2. In art and poetry, one of the highest orders of angels, excel- 
ling in wisdom, might, swiftness of movement and action, and 
zeal in the service of God. — Standard Dictionary, 



BOOK i] NOTES 97 

Cherubim (plural of cherub). An' order of angelic beings 
ranking second to the seraphim in the celestial hierarchy, and 
held to excel in knowledge. — Standard Dictionary. 

138. Essences. See note on line 117. 

149. Thralls. Word of Scandinavian origin, meaning those 
bound to the service of others. 

152. Gloomy deep. Observe the effect of "gloomy deep." 
The "gloomy deep" is Chaos. See chapter on The Cosmog- 
raphy of Paradise Lost, p. xvi. 

160. " But ever to do ill our sole delight," —the keynote of 
the future struggle in the poem. 

167. Fail. " If I mistake not." 

169-177. Shut your eyes and try to image this. 

177. Bellow. Observe how the sound suits the sense. 

178. Slip. "Letusnotlet slip — ." 
180-183. Image this. 

198. Titanian, etc. See encyclopsedia or any good manual 
of mythology for stories of the Titans and the War of the 
Giants upon Jove. 

199. Briareos. One of the three hundred-armed sons of 
Uranus and Gaia, the others being Cottus and Gyges. Said to 
have aided Jove against the Titans. 

Typhon. A hundred-headed monster, conquered and cast 
into Tartarus by Jove. In various legends his place of abode 



98 NOTES [book I 

was in southern Asia Minor and under Mt. ^tna. He was a 
personification of volcanic force. Some idea of Milton's mean- 
ing may be had from the myth that Tityus, one of the giants 
" that warred on Jove," when stretched on the ground, covered 
nine acres. See encyclopsedia or mythology. 

200. Tarsus. Capital of Cilicia, in the southeastern part of 
Asia Minor. Birthplace of Saint Paul. 

201. Leviathan. Job xli. No description can surpass that 
given by Milton in B. I., 201-208, or B. VII., 412-416. 

204. Night-foundered. Not foundered in the usual sense of 
being sunk in the water, but of being sunk or buried in the 
darkness. 

210-220. Will. Study these lines in relation to Milton's 
avowed intention, — "To justify the ways of God to men." 

221-228. Try to banish from your mind all else, and image 
this. Can you conceive, — 

" land that ever burned 
With solid (fire), as the lake with liquid fire " ? 

228-238. Do not forget that this entire passage has value to 
you only as it aids you to image the shore of Hell. 

232. Pelorus. Cape Faro, eastern coast of Sicily, across 
Strait of Messina from Italy. 

233. ^tna. Volcano in Sicily not far from Pelorus. See 
Map of Classical References, p. xxxvii. 

234. Fueled. Study the phrase. 



I 



BOOK I] NOTES 99 

235. Sublimed. See dictionary. 

231). Stygian flood. See Chart of Hell, p. xxix. 

248-2-49. Equaled. Satan still asserts his equality despite 
defeat, seeming to think with Beelzebub that possibly "chance 
or fate " (B. I., l;jo) had turned the scale against him. 

249-258. Farewell, happy fields ! These lines contain an 
energy that is tremendous. Satan challenges our admiration. 
Discuss the assertions made by Satan in these lines. What 
does he mean by " all but less " ? 

O' 262-263. Reign. See B. VI., 183-188. 

» 266. Astonished. Stunned, dazed, or literally, "thunder- 
struck." To understand this word better, see B. I., 311-329 ; 
B. VI., 763-764; B. VI., 834-866; and especially line 858 of 
B. VI. 

Oblivious. Producing oblivion, to aid the thunderbolts of 
the Almighty in the complete bewilderment of the fallen 
angels. 

276. Edge. Crisis of battle, when forces are ready either to 
waver and break, or to charge ; as when Caesar turned the tide 
of battle "that day he overcame the Nervii" at the River 
Sabis. 

284. Shield. Imagine size of shield from comparison with 
moon as seen through telescope. 

288. Tuscan artist. Galileo, who was visited by Milton 
when in Italy. 



100 NOTES [book I 

290. Valdarno. Valley of the Arno, where Galileo, though 
still under the surveillance of the Inquisition, continued to use 
his telescope. 

294. Ammiral. Flagship of an admiral. The comparison 
or figure, rather than the definition, is the thing to he observed. 

296. Marie. See B. I., 227-237. 

303. Vallombrosa. " Shady Valley," a valley eighteen miles 
east of Florence ; visited by Milton in 1639. It will be seen 
from this that a poet's whole life experience enters into his 
poetry. Try to image the fallen angels lying on the burning 
lake in comparison with ' ' autumnal leaves that strow the 
brooks in Vallombrosa," reeds on the shore of the Red Sea 
(Reed Sea), or bodies of the Egyptians after the Israelites had 
crossed the Red Sea in safety. See Exodus xiv. 28-30. 

Etrurian. Etruria was, in Roman times, the western coast of 
Italy north of the Tiber. 

305. Orion. A constellation, represented as a giant armed I 
with sword and club. According to the ancients, the constel- 
lation's rising and setting are attended by terrible storms. 
In mythology, Orion was a mighty Boeotian hunter who became 
a constellation. 

307. Busiris. The name given by Milton to the Egyptian 
king who pursued the Israelites, and who, with his army, was 
overwhelmed by the waves of the Red Sea. 

Memphian. Of Memphis on the Nile ; Egyptian capital. 

Chivalry. Soldiery. 



BOOK i] NOTES 101 

308. Perfidious hatred. Exodus xii. 31-33. Do not lose 
sight of the comparison with Satan and the fallen angels. 

309. Goshen. See Map of Egypt and Arabia, p. xxxix. 

324. Cherub and Seraph (pi. forms, cherubim and seraphim). 
See note B. I., 129. 

325-329. Imagine the horror implied in the fulfillment of this 
possible jDunishment. 

328. Linkdd thunderbolts. In B. VI., 763-764, the Son of 
God is armed thus : — 

** beside him hung his bow 
And quiver, with three-bolted thunder stored." 

335. Nor . . . not, etc. Meaning of this ? 

338. Potent rod. Exodus iv. 2-17 ; viii. 5+. 

339. Amram's son. Moses. Exodus vi. 20. 
340-341. Cloud. Exodus x. 13-15. 

344_346. Do not allow the preceding notes to blot out the 
comparisons from your mind. 

351. A multitude, etc. Goths and Vandals. See General 
History. 

353. Rhene, Rhine ; Danaw, Danube. 

355. Reference to Vandals. See General History. 

386-387. Cherubim. Exodus xxv. 10-22. 



102 NOTES [book I 

381-391. Example of Milton's extreme Puritanism. 

392-502. Moloch. As has been said in the introductory note 
on p. 93, the Scripture references usually given are very un- 
satisfactory, being little more than the mere mention of the 
names given in Milton's text. Milton presents here the char- 
acters of his mighty epic as does Homer when he gives his cata- 
logue of heroes. The characteristics of the fallen angels are 
given in the poem itself much more fully than they are given 
in the Scripture references. It may be said that these lines 
of the poem contain all the material necessary for their own 
explanation. It may, however, be a little puzzling to under- 
stand why Milton gives so many lines to the fallen angels 
as heathen gods. One editor says that Milton used these names 
"for their grandiloquent sound and rich but vague suggestion, 
rather than for any definite purpose of conveying information." 
I do not wholly agree with this editor. To Milton, these gods 
and places with their history were as familiar as are playmates 
and playgrounds to a schoolboy. It seems to me that his pur- 
pose was to increase our horror of the fallen angels by detailing 
their after-conduct as heathen gods, a simple application of 
making clear the unknown by citing the known ; for his readers 
knew the tales of heathen gods better than they did Mil- 
ton's sublime creation. His detailed account seems, therefore, 
an attempt to help the reader to realize the fallen angels by 
citing their familiar after-conduct. But the high school pupil 
is little aided by this attempt. He should try to conceive these' 
fallen angels, not as heathen gods, but as they are described in 
B. I., 423-431. He should try to image the angels by reading 
and rereading these lines. To trade a conception of the tre- 



I 



BOOK i] NOTES 103 

mendous action of the poem for a knowledge of heathen gods 
would be a poor exchange mdeed. So it will not be necessary 
for the pupil to seek too far for knowledge of Baalim, Ashtaroth, 
etc. Keep to the action in the poem. 

One thing, however, should be carefully noted : — That 
Moloch, Belial, Mammon, etc., are personifications of the sins 
because of which the angels fell. Each of the principal fallen 
angels is a personification of one of the chief sins, as Hate, 
Sloth, Avarice, etc. It will be very interesting for the student 
to seek through the speech of each to identify him with one of 
the so-called " Seven Deadly Sins," for which see Encyc. Brit.^ 
VIII., 592-593, and Spenser's Faery Queen, B. I., Canto 4. 
These references should be carefully examined. 

The places mentioned in the text appear on the maps in this 
book. See Table of Contents or Index for map directions. — Ed. 

392. Moloch. See his speech B. II., 51-105. What one of 
the Deadly Sins does he typify ? (For Seven Deadly Sins, see 
Encyc. Brit., VIII., 592-593). Find, on Map of Palestine, p. 
XXXV, territory in which Moloch, under his various names, was 
worshiped. 

392-405. For places mentioned in these lines, see Map of 
Palestine, p. xxxv. 

402-403. Temple ... on opprobrious hill. Southern part 
of the Mount of Olives, supposed site of the temple built by 
Solomon for the worship of the gods of his heathen wives. 
1 Kings xi. 7 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 13. See Map of Jerusalem, p. xxxv. 

406. Chemos. Trace out on Map of Palestine, territory in 



104 



NOTES 



[book 



which Chemos, under his various names, was worshiped. Read 
note onB. I., 392-502. 

406-418. See Map of Palestine, p. xxxv, for these places. 

411. Asphaltic pool. Dead Sea. See Map of Palestine, 
p. xxxv. 

422. Baalim and Ashtaroth. These words are sufficiently 
explained in lines 419-423 of B. I. 

438. Astoreth. Passage sufficiently explains itself. See 
Seven Deadly Sins, Encyc. Brit., VIII., 592-593. 

444. Uxorious king. See note on B. I. , 402-403. 

446. Thammuz. Personification of what? See Adonis, 
E7icyc. Brit., I., 163. 

455. Ezekiel saw. Ezekiel viii. 14. 

457-463. Next came one ... 1 Samuel v. 1-5. 

460-466. Grunsel edge. Groundsill edge. 

464. See Map of Palestine, p. xxxv. 

468-469. See Map of Palestine, p. xxxv. 

470-476. Ahaz. 2 Chronicles xxviii. 22-25 ; 2 Kings 16. 

471. Leper. 2 Kings v. 

478. Osiris, Isis, Orus. See encyclopsedia. 

482-484. Nor did . . . Exodus xii. 35, and xxxii. 4. 



484-489. Rebel king ... 1 Kings xii. 



BOOK I] NOTES 105 

490. Belial. Find from Belial's speech, B. II., 109-228, 
what sin he personities. See Seven Deadly Sins, Encyc. Brit., 
VIII., 592-593. 

490-502. Notice that Belial has no special temple. Why ? 
What does he personify ? 

507-518. Titan. For places, see Map of Classical Eefer- 
ences, p. xxxvii. For personages, see dictionary, encyclopaedia, 
classical dictionary, or any handbook of mythology. 

514. Delphian cliff. Mt. Parnassus in Greece. See Map of 
Classical References, p. xxxvii. 

517. Adria. Adriatic Sea. See Map of Classical References, 
p. xxxvii. 

518. Celtic. Here, a noun. Western Europe, which, in 
ancient times was inhabited by the Celts. 

543. Have you read, in this book, the chapter entitled " The 
Cosmography of the Universe as Found in Paradise Lost " ? 

546. Orient. Sunrise. What are sunrise colors ? Imagine 
banners with this appearance. Compare this description of 
Satanic banners with the description of the American flag in 
Drake's famous poem. See Himes's note on B. I., 522-669, 
Himes's Paradise Lost, Harpers, 1898. 

550. Dorian mood. " Grave ; as the Lydian was soft, and 
the Phrygian sprightly." — Sprague. See lines 5-6, stanza 5, 
Dryden's Alexander's Feast. 

575. Small infantry. . . . See "Pygmies" in any classical 
dictionary, or Greek mythology, under "Labors of Hercules." 



106 NOTES [book I 

For an excellent note on "Pygmies," see Emyc. Brit., XX., 
120. But do not lose sight of the comparison. 

577. Phlegra. In Thrace, north of jEgean Sea. Referring 
to Giants' War, Greek mythology. 

580. Uther's son. King Arthur. See Tennyson's Idyls of 
the King. 

582-587. References to famous knightly feats at arms for 
purpose of comparison. The geographical references amount to 
nothing to the average student. For his comparison, he should 
recall any famous tale of knightly valor that he may have read. 

583. Charlemain. Milton errs here. It was Roland, not 
Charlemain (Charlemagne), v^^lio fell in this battle. 

592. Her. Peculiar use. See Psalm cxxxvii. 5. 

622-662. Study this speech for its crafty skill. Outline it. 
Make a comparison with Antony's speech over Caesar. 

678. Mammon. What does he personify ? 

694. Babel. Genesis xi. 1-9. 

Memphian kings. Reference to building of pyramids. See 
classical dictionary. 

700-709. Image this. 

704, Scummed the bullion dross. Removed impurities from 
the surface of molten metal, or "skimmed" the bullion's 
(pure metal's) dross. 

720. See classical dictionary or encyclopaedia. 



BOOK ii] NOTES 107 

738-746. Observe the music of these lines. 

739. Ausonian laud. Italy. 

740. Mulciber. Vulcan. See classical dictionary or encyclo- 
p?edia. 

746. Lemnos. See Map of Classical References, p. xxxvii. 

756. Pandemonium. See dictionary, and Chart of Hell, p. xxix. 

763-766. Champions bold. Reference to challenges to com- 
bat between Crusaders and Saracens. 

765. Paynim. Pagan, referring particularly to Mohamme- 
dans. Recall Ivanhoe's challenge in Scott's novel. 

780-781. Pygmean . . . Indian mount. The best reference 
on these lines is to be found in Encyc. Brit.., XX., 120, espe- 
cially the part from Ctesias. 

781-788. Faery elves. See Midsummer Nighfs Dream, Act 
II., sc. 2. 

BOOK II 

2. Ormuz. Ormus or Omuz, a rocky island, twelve miles in 
circumference, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf. Once a 
great center of the Indian trade westward. Captured by the 
British in 1622, and thus brought prominently to English notice. 
See Lippincott's Pron. Gaz. 

Ind. Poetical term for India, of which fabulous tales of 
wealth were current. 



108 NOTES [BOOK 11 

4. Showers on . . . Meant literally, referring to an Eastern 
coronation ceremony in which the prince was showered with 
pearls and gold dust. 

5. Merit. (?) 

6. Bad. (?) 

6-8. And, from despair thus high. What does this mean ? 

11-42. Wliat are Satan's purposes in this speech ? 

11-14. What is his excuse for calling them "Deities of 
Heaven " ? 

18. Just right. Observe the effect of " just." 

42. Who can advise, may speak. Does this include all ? 

44. Why " strongest and fiercest" ? See note on 392, B. I. 

51-105. My sentence. Show how Moloch's speech bears out 
his character as a personification of one of the Seven Deadly 
Sins. 

Make an outline of Moloch's speech, and study it as an ex- 
ample of persuasion. 

67. Black fire. (?) 

69. Tartarean. Of Tartarus, the lowest of the regions of 
Hades. 

73. Bethink them. What is the object of " bethink " ? 
Drench. Draught or drink. 

74. Forgetful lake. See note on " Oblivious pool," B. I., 266. 



BOOK II] NOTES 109 

75. Proper. Why does Milton say that "in our proper 
motion, we ascend " 9 See line 81, B. II. 

113. Could make the worse appear the better reason. This 

was said of the Greek Sophists in the time of Socrates. 

119-225. Study this as an answer to Moloch's speech. Make 
an outline of this speech. What is Belial's predominant char- 
acteristic ? 

131-134. Image this. 

229-283. Outline this speech and compare it with those of 
Moloch and Belial. Which makes the strongest argument ? 
Does argument or desire win the day ? What is the motive in 
the advice of each ? 

284-290. Murmur. Students who have had the ^neid or 
Iliad should find and produce in class the passages similar to 
this. 

310-378. Thrones. Make an outline of this speech. Com- 
pare the arguments with those of the previous speakers. 

345-378. Enterprise. Note how Beelzebu?b echoes and em- 
phasizes his chief's hinted plan given in lines 650-656, B. I. 

Note carefully how the new race of Man here becomes an 
important factor in the scheme of the poem. 

390-416. The plan has now been exposed: study Satan's 
method of making himself its executor, B. II., 430-466. What 
other might have volunteered ? 

410. Isle. What Isle? 



110 NOTES [book II 

418. Suspense. Here an adjective. See Webster's Inter- 
national Dictionary. 

438-444. Void profound. A great void in Chaos outside the 
gates of Hell. See B. II., 932-933; also Fig. 4, p. xxxi. 

457. Intend. Attend to matters at home. 

506. Stygian council. Example of ascription, by Milton 
and other early English writers, of classical names to the Chris- 
tian Hell. 

606-513. Image this. Globe. (?) Emblazonry. (?) Hor- 
rent. (?) 

514. Cry, Call out, as does a herald. 

517. Alchemy. Alchemically made trumpet. 

530. Olympian games. See dictionary or encyclopaedia. 

533-535. Troubled sky. See Julius Ccesar, Act II., sc. 2, 
lines 19 and 20. 

539. T5rphoean. See note on B. I., 199. As a personifica- 
tion of volcanic energy, Typhon hurled rocks against the sky. 

542-545. Alcides. Hercules. See death of Hercules in 
classical dictionary, mythology, or encyclopsedia. 

Places named may be found on Map of Classical References, 
p. xxxvii. 

559. Providence, foreknowledge, etc. Subjects upon which 
large volumes were written by early theologians. Does Milton 
give his own opinion in B. II., 565 ? 



BOOK ii] NOTES 111 

575-614. Infernal rivers. See Chart of Hell, p. xxix. See 
also mythology, or Etmjc. Brit., Index. The poem itself, how- 
ever, gives a complete characterization of the four rivers of Hell. 
The name of each in Greek signifies the characteristic given it 
by Milton. 

592. Serbonian bog. See International Dictionary, Stand- 
ard Dictionary, or any encyclopsedia. See Map of Egypt and 
Arabia, p. xxxix. 

593. Damiata. Ancient city near the site of old Pelusium. 
See Map of Egypt and Arabia, p. xxxix. Many editors have iden- 
tified Damiata with the modern Damietta at the eastern mouth 
of the Nile. A careful study of a good map of ancient Egypt in 
connection with this passage of the poem will show the impossi- 
bility of identifying Damiata with the modern Damietta ; for 
a march between Damietta and Mt. Caslus would have been im- 
possible at any time in history, as the sea deeply indents Egypt 
to the east of Damietta. Besides, Pelusium was the city from 
which the Egyptians commenced their eastward marches, and 
toward which invading armies directed their marches. 

Mount Caslus. A sand hill on the Mediterranean coast, 
north of the center of the Serbonian bog. See Map of Egypt 
and Arabia, p. xxxix. 

611. Medusa. See dictionary or encyclopaedia. 

614* Tantalus. See dictionary or encyclopaedia. 

628. Gorgons, hydras, chimeras. See dictionary or ency- 
clopsedia. 



112 nOTES [book li 

629-1055. In the study of these lines, nothing should draw 
the pupil away from the use of his imagination. Notes and 
references often serve to do this. Study, not about the poem, 
hut the poem. Imagine Satan as he "shaves with level wing 
the deep," etc. 

638. Bengala. Poetical form of Bengal, in India. 

Ternate and Tidore. Two of the Spice Islands, or Moluccas, 
in the East Indies. Imagine the sailing of the ships as compared 
with Satan's flight. 

641. Wide Ethiopian to the Cape. Through the Indian 
Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope. 

655. Cerberean. See dictionary. 

661. Calabria. Once the name of that part of Italy opposite 
Sicily. 

Trinacria. The coast of Sicily opposite Italy. 

662. Night-hag. "From the Scandinavian mythology, in 
which night-hags, riding through the air, and requiring infant 
blood for their incantations, are common, and Lapland is their 
favorite region." — Masson. 

708. A comet. Considered as an omen of war and pestilence. 
Keep this in mind in imagining this comparison. 

709. Ophiuchus. A huge constellation in the northern hemi- 
sphere. Otherwise called Serpentarius. Study the comparison. 

716. Caspian. Caspian Sea, noted for terrific thunder-storms. 
Let this conception aid in imagining the combatants. 



BOOK ii] KOTES 113 

721-722. Once more. Study these lines carefully. See 
1 Corinthians xv. 26. 

728-814. Only son. Notice that Sin is the daughter of Satan, 
and Death the offspring of both. Explain the allegorical mean- 
ing of this. 

746. Portress. Why is Sin made the portress of Hell's gate ? 

755-758. Left side. Compare the origin of Sin with the 
origin of Minerva, for which see classical dictionary or mythol- 
ogy. Why does Sin spring from the left side of Satan's head ? 

759-705. Recoiled. At a later date, Pope wrote, — 

" Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
As to be hated needs but to be seen ; 
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace." 

774-777. Key. Why was the key of Hell given into the 
hands of Sin ? And why was it that Death should also be at 
the gates of Hell ? 

787-792. Fled. What is symbolized by Death's pursuit of 
Sin? Observe, also, that Death overtakes Sin. It is "swifter 
far." Explain this. " The wages of sin is death." 

795-802. Monsters. These "hell-hounds" are the offspring 
of Sin and Death. What do these "yelling monsters" sym- 
bolize ? What is symbolized in the lines, — 

** hourly conceived 
And hourly born, with sorrow infinite 
To me . . . 

That rest or intermission none I find " ? 
X 



114 NOTES [book II 

804. Grim death. If you have found out what the "hell- 
hounds " are, cannot you discover what is symbolized by, — 

'* Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on " ? 

805-809. Why is Death unwilling to slay Sin ? 

811-814. Invulnerable. Observe that both Satan and Sin 
may suffer extinction, and that Death ends with them. 

821-823. Show the relation between these lines and lines 
1-3, B. I. 

843-844. Your prey. Is this still true ? I 

845-849. If the preceding questions have been carefully 
answered, these lines will be very significant. 

879-883. Jarring sound. Observe how the sound suits the 
sense. 

883-884. What does this symbolize ? See B. II., 875-876. 

884-889. Wide open. Compare with Matthew vii. 13. 

890-916. In sudden view appear. These lines should be 
studied most carefully for their profound symbolism. 

898-916. Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry. Study these lines with 
reference to geology and physical geography. 

904. Barca or Cyrene. Reference to desert regions in northern 
Africa. " The Barcan desert pierce . . ." — Thanatopsis. 

917-1055. Voyage. For Satan's flight see Fig. 4, p. xxxi. 

922. Bellona. See dictionary. 



BOOK II] NOTES 115 

933. Drops. Follow Satan's flight on Fig. 4, p. xxxi. 

939. Syrtis. See dictionary. 

943-947. Griffin . . . Arimaspian. The Griffins were mon- 
sters, half eagle and half lion, who guarded "the gold-gushing 
fount, the stream of Pluto," and who constantly battled for the 
gold with the Arimaspians, "a cavalry host of one-eyed " people 
of Scythia. See p. 27, ^schylus, Bohn Library, Encyc. Brit., 
XXI., 577, or Herodotus, IV., 13. 

951. Hubbub. This should be expected at the Pavilion of 
Chaos. 

964. Orcus and Adas and the dreaded name of Demogorgon. 

The three who stood nearest the pavilion of Chaos and Night. 

Orcus was the god who brought spirits to the realm of Pluto. 

Ades or Hades was the god who presided over the shades in 
that realm. 

Demogorgon was a mystical divinity so terrible that none 
dared pronounce the name. 

The mythological tales of these divinities do not seem very 
applicable here, and it is possible that the mystical reference 
was purposed by Milton to increase the horror and confusion of 
the scene. 

965-967. Rumor . . . These personifications are also in- 
tended to add to our conception of the dreadful region of Chaos. 

980. Profound. What part of speech ? See dictionary. 

981-987. Erect the standard. Note Satan's promise here. 
Does he intend to fulfill it ? 



116 NOTES [book 11 

988. Anarch. See dictionary. This word was probably 
coined by Milton. Why does he call Chaos " anarch " ? 

999. Can. Is this a principal or an auxiliary verb ? 

1005. Golden chain. Does the "golden chain" symbolize 
anything ? If so, what ? 

1017-1018. Argo. Jason's ship on his voyage for the " Golden 
Fleece." At what is now the Bosphorus, the exit of the waters 
of the Euxine or Black Sea. The Symplegades, or rocks on 
either side of this exit, were said to close upon anything that 
attempted to pass between them ; hence, "the justling rocks." 
See classical dictionary or mythology. 

1020. Charybdis. See dictionary, mythology, classical dic- 
tionary, or encyclopaedia. 

1021-1033. Difficulty. Is the difference between the difficulty 
of Satan's passage and the ease of that of those who follow 
the " broad and beaten way " symbolical of anything ? 

1029. Utmost orb. The Primum Mobile. See diagram of 
"The World," p. xxxiii. 

1052-1053. Pendent world. Remember that "this pendent 
world" means the entire solar system, to use the modern term. 
What is the diameter of the orbit of Saturn ? But he says 
that the whole system looked " in bigness as a star of smallest 
magnitude close by the moon." The star and the moon, as we 
see them, are compared with what things as Satan saw them ? 



INDEX 



[All items of the following index preceded by a degree sign (o) are annotated ; 
those without are simply located. Numbers indicate pages.] 



° Acheron (see infernal rivers), 

64, 111. 
Adam, exiled from Paradise, 

xxii-xxiii. 
°Ades (Hades), 79, 115. 
°Adria, 26, 105. 
^schylus, quoted, 115. 
°^tna, 14, 98. 
° Ahaz, 24, 104. 
°Alcides (Hercules), 62, 110. 
°ammiral, 17, 110. 
°Amram's son, 19, 101. 
° anarch, 79, 116. 
°and from despair thus high, 

41, 108. 
angels, fallen, condition of, 

16. 
as heathen gods, 20 + . 
vast numbers of, 17, 19, 31. 
° angel's ken, 7, 95. 
°Aonian mount, 5, 95. 
Arabia, Map, xxxix. 

117 



Argo, 81, 116. 
Arimaspian, 78, 115. 
Arthur, King (Uther's son), 

28, 106. 
as far removed, 8, 96. 
Ashtaroth, 22, 104. 
Asphaltic pool, 21, 104. 
Astarte (Astoreth), 23, 104. 
astonished, 16, 99. 
Astoreth, 23, 104. 
Ausonian land, 34, 107. 

Baalim, 22, 104. 

Babel, 33, 106. 

bad eminence, 41, 108. 

Barca, 76, 114. 

battle, dubious, 9, 96. 

Beelzebub, xvii-xviii, 8, 96. 

condition after fall, 8. 

speeches of, 10-11, 16, 53-56, 
56-57. 

Satan's assistant, xvii-xviii. 



118 



INDEX 



Beelzebub, rank of, 53. 
° Belial, 25, 102-103, 105. 

speech of, 45-50. 
°Bellona, 77, 114. 
°Bengala, m, 112. 
° bethink them, 44, 108. 
° black fire, 43, 108. 
° boggy syrtis, 78, 115. 
°Bosphorus (see Argo), 81, 

116. 
°Briareos, 13, 97. 
bridge built by Sin and Death, 

81, Map xxxi. 
° brooding, 6, 95. 
°Busiris, 17, 100. 
°but ever todo ill, 11, 97. 

° Calabria, 67, 112. 
°can (principal verb), 80, 116. 
°Cape, the, 66, 112. 
Carlyle, quoted, x. 
°Casius, mount, 65, 111. 
° Caspian, 69, 112. 
° Celtic, the, 26, 105. 
° chaos, view from hell-gates, 
76, 114. 

described, xvi. 

dimensions, 76. 
Chaos, 79-80. 

ancestor of Nature, 76. 

pavilion of, xxi, 78. 

realm ends, 81-82. 



Chaos, Satan's meeting with, 

xxi, 78. 
speech to Satan, 80. 
°Charlemain, 26, 106. 
° Chary bdis, 81, 116. 
Chaucer, viii. 
°Chemos, 21, 103. 
° cherub, 18, 97, 101. 
° cherubim, 20, 97, 101. 
° chimeras, 66, 111. 
° chosen seed, 5, 94. 
Classical References, Map of, 

xxxvii. 
note on, 93-94. 
"cloud, pitchy, 19, 101. 
"Cocytus (see infernal rivers), 

64, 111. 
°Cold, 76, 114. 
° comet, Satan likened to, 69, 

112. 
Comus, ix. 

council of fallen angels, xviii. 
Cromwell, xiii. 
°cry, 61, 110. 
°Cyrene, 76, 114. 

°Damiata, 65, 111. 
°Danaw (Danube), 19, 101. 
Dante, reference to, 1 ; quoted, 

96. 
° darkness visible, 7, 96. 
° utter, 8, 96. 



INDEX 



119 



° Death, birth of, 72, 113. 

bridge built by, 81. 

characteristics of, 74. 

described, 67-68. 

encounter with Satan, 69. 

end of foretold, 70. 

°son of Satan, 70, 113. 

°son of Sin, 72, 113. 

speech to Satan, 68-69. 

victims promised to, 74. 
° Deities of Heaven, 41, 108. 
° Delphian cliff, 26, 105. 
°Demogorgon, 79, 115. 
° despair, uplifted from, 41, 108. 
dictionary references, note on, 

93. 
° disobedience, man's first, 5, 

94. 
doom of man pronounced, xxii. 
° Dorian mood, 27, 105. 
° drench, 44, 108. 
°Dry, 76, 114. 
Dryden, reference to, 1. 
° dubious battle, 9, 96. 

Earth, Satan's visit to, xxi. 
Eden, man's exile from, xxii- 

xxiii. 
°edge of battle, 16, 99. 
education, Milton's definition 

of, xi. 
Milton's idea of, xi. 



Egypt, Map of, xxxix. 
° elves, faery, 36, 107. 
° empyreal substance, 10, 96. 
Empyrean, description of, xvi. 
° erect the standard, 79, 115. 
° essences, 10, 97. 
° Ethiopian, 66, 112. 
° Etrurian, 17, 100. 
Eve, temptation of, xxii. 
exiled from Paradise, xxii- 
xxiii. 
° ever-burning sulphur, 8, 96. 
° Ezekiel saw, 23, 104. 

° faery elves, 36, 107. 
fall of man, cause of, 6. 

plotted, 55-56. 
fallen angels, description of, 22. 
°fail, 12, 97. 

° Farewell, happy fields ! 15, 99. 
°fied (Sin from Death), 72, 113. 
° foreknowledge, 63, 110. 
° forgetful lake, 44, 108. 
° fueled, 14, 98. 

Galileo, Milton's visit to, x. 

° (Tuscan artist), 16, 99. 
gates of Hell, described, xviii, 
67. 

Chart of, xxix. 

opening of, 75-76. 
° gloomy deep, 11, 97. 



120 



INDEX 



° golden chain, World hung in, 
80, 82, 116. 

°gorgons, 66, 111. 

° Goshen, Map, xxxix, 17, 101. 

° Goths, reference to (multi- 
tude), 19, 101. 

Gray, Thomas, cited, 1. 

° greater Man, 5, 94. 

° griffin, 78, 115. 

°grim Death (father of hell- 
hounds), 72, 114. 

° grunsel edge, 23, 104. 

° happy isle (World), 57, 109. 
Heaven, described, 82. 

location of, xvi. 
° heaven hides, 6, 95. 
° heavenly muse, 5, 94. 
° Helicon (see Aonian mount), 

5,95. 
Hell, description of, 7-8, 12, 14, 
64-66. 

distance of, from Heaven, 8. 

gates of, described, 18, 67. 

opening of gates, 75-76. 
° hell-hounds (yelling mon- 
sters), 67, 72, 113. 
° her, peculiar use of, 29, 106. 
° Hercules (Alcides), 62, 110. 
Herodotus, cited, 115. 
°highth, 6, 95. 
"hope never comes, 7, 96. 



°Hot, 76, 114. 
° hubbub, 78, 115. 
° hydras, 66, 111. 

°ill, but ever to do, 11, 97. 

II Penseroso, ix. 

° Ind, 42, 107. 

° infernal rivers, 64, 111. 

°in sudden vievir appear, 76, 

114. 
° intend at home, 59, 110. 
°isle, happy, 57, 109. 

° jarring sound, 75, 114. 
Jerusalem, Map, xxxv. 
°justling rocks (see Argo), 81, 

116. 
^ just right, 41, 108. 

Keats, cited, 1, 
°Ken, angel's, 7, 95. 
°King Arthur (Uther's son), 
28, 106. 

° lake, forgetful, 44, 108. 
lake of Hell, Chart, xxix. 
L'Allegro, ix. 
° Lapland witches (night-hag), 

67, 112. 
° left side, 71, 113. 
°Lemnos, 35, 107. 
° leper, 24, 104. 



INDEX 



121 



\ 



° Lethe (see infernal rivers), 

64, 65, 111. 
° leviathan, 13, 98. 
°LinkM thunderbolts, 18, 105. 
London, population in Milton's 

time, ix. 
Longfellow, cited, 1; quoted, 

96. 
Lucifer (Satan), xvii. 
Lycidas, ix. 

° Mammon, character of, 32, 106. 

speech of, 50-52. 
man, creation of, xx-xxi. 

fall of, planned, 55. 

temptation of, xxi-xxii. 
man's first disobedience, 5, 94. 
Marvell, Andrew, cited, 1. 
° Medusa, 65, 111. 
°Meraphian chivalry, 17, 100. 
°Memphian kings, 33, 106. 
° merit, raised by, 41, 108. 
° middle flight, 5, 95. 
Milton, 

birth and parentage, vii. 

education, vii, viii. 

periods of his literary life, 
viii. 

residence at Horton, ix. 

L' Allegro, II Penseroso, 
Comus, and Lycidas writ- 
ten, ix. 



Milton, early characteristics, 
ix, X. 

travels in France, Italy, and 
Switzerland, x. 

visits Galileo, xi. 

opens school in London, xi. 

marries Mary Powell, xi. 

domestic troubles, xii. 

political life, xii, xiii. 

blindness, xiii. 

"evil days," xiii. 

Paradise Lost written, xiv. 

appearance and characteris- 
tics in old age, xiv, xv. 

later marriages, xv. 

publishes Paradise Regained 
and Samson Agonistes, 

XV. 

death and burial, xv. 

Minshull, Elizabeth, xv. 

"Moist, 76, 114. 

° Moloch, 21, 22, 102, 103. 
° speech of, 43-45, 108. 

° monsters, yelling (hell- 
hounds), 72, 113. 

° Moses (see Amram's son), 19, 
101. 

°Most High, 6, 95. 

° motion, proper, 44, 109. 

° mount Casius, 65, 111. 

° Mulciber, fall of, 34, 107. 

° multitude, 19, 101. 



122 



INDEX 



° murmur, 52, 109. 

° muse, heavenly, 5, 94. 

° night-foundered, 13, 98. 
° night-hag, 67, 112. 
°nine times, 7, 95. 
° nor did they not, 18, 101. 

"^ oblivious pool, 16, 99. 

° Olympian games, 62, 110. 

°once more, 70, 113. 

°Ophiuchus, 69, 112. 

° opprobrious hill, temple on, 

21, 103. 
° oracle of God, 5, 94. 
°Orcus, 79, 115. 
°Oreb (Horeb), 5, 24, 94. 
° orient colors, 27, 105. 
° Orion, 17, 100. 
° Ormus, 41, 107. 

° Palestine, Map, xxxv ; 8, 24, 

96. 
pamphlets, Milton's, partial 

list of, xlii. 
° Pandemonian council, xx, 35. 
° Pandemonium, 4, 35, 107. 

building of, 32-34. 

location of, xxix. 
Paradise Lost, 

subject chosen, xiv. 



Paradise Lost, 

theme, 5. 

purpose of, 6. 

composition of, xiv. 

date of publication, xiv. 

price received for, xiv. 

public appreciation of, xiv. 

books of, rearranged, xv. 
Paradise Regained, published, 

xiv. 
° Parnassus (Aonian mount), 

5, 95. 
pavilion of Chaos, xxxi, 78. 
°Paynim, 36, 107. 
° pearl and gold, showers on, 

41, 108. 
°Pelorus, 14, 98. 
° pendent World, 82, 116. 
°Peor (Moloch), 21. 
° perfidious hatred, 17, 101. 
°Phlegethon (see infernal riv- 
ers), 64, 111. 
°Phlegra, 28, 106. 
''pitchy cloud, 19, 101. 
°pool, oblivious, 16, 99. 
Pope, quoted, 113. 
° portress of hell-gate, 71, 113. 
Powell, Mary, xi, xv. 
°Primum Mobile (utmost orb), 

Chart, xxxiii ; 81, 116. 
° profound (noun), 79, 115. 
" proper motion, 44, 109. 



INDEX 



123 



° providence, 63, 110. 
Ptolemaic system, xvi, xix-xx, 

and Chart, xxxiii. 
° pygmean, 36, 107. 

° reason hath equaled, 15, 99. 
rebel angels, defeat of, xvii. 

fall through chaos, xvii. 
° rebel king, 24, 104. 
rebellion in Heaven, cause of, 

xvii, 6. 
description of, xvii. 
references to classics, note on, 

93-94. 
references to dictionary, note 

on, 93. 
references to Scripture, note 

on, 93. 
° reign worth ambition, 15, 99. 
° removed as far, 8, 96. 
° Khene, 19, 101. 
rhyme (rime), Milton's opinion 

of, 1-2. 
^rivers, infernal, 64, 111. 
° Rumor, 79, 115. 

Samson Agonistes, published, 

XV. 

Satan, 
cause of fall, xvii, 6. 
speech to Beelzebub, 8-10. 
determination of, 9-10. 



Satan, 
plans revenge, 11-12. 
second speech to Beelzebub, 

11-12. 
description of, 13, 28-29. 
soliloquy of, 15. 
° shield of, 16, 99. 
spear of, 17. 
first speech to fallen angels, 

18. 
remorse of, 29. 
second speech to fallen angels, 

30-31. 
speech in Pandemonium, 

41-42. 
speech volunteering, 59. 
starts on his journey, QQ. 
flight described, 66. 
meeting with Sin and Death, 

67-75. 
encounter with Death, 69. 
his death foretold, 70. 
reply to Sin, 70-71. 
° susceptible of death, 73, 

114. 
promises victims to Sin and 

Death, 74. 
views chaos from hell-gates, 

77. 
ponders upon his voyage, 77. 
escapes from Hell, 77. 
appearance flying, 66, 77. 



124 



INDEX 



Satan, 
''difficulties of journey, 78, 

81, 116. 
journey through chaos, xx- 

xxi, 77-82. 
arrives at pavilion of Chaos, 

78. 
speech to powers of chaos, 79. 
flight to World, 77-82. 
alights on World, 82. 
enters World, xxi. 
tempts Eve, xxii. 
Scripture references, note on, 

93. 
° scummed the bullion dross, 

33, 106. 
° seraph, 18, 101. 
° seraphim, 10, 96. 
°Serbonian bog, 64, 111. 
° Serpent, infernal, 6, 95. 
° Seven Deadly Sins, — see 

note on Moloch, 103. 
° Siloa's brook, 5, 94. 
° Sin, origin of, 71. (See " left 
side," 113.) 
description of, 67. 
speech to Satan, 70. 
promised victims by Satan, 

73-74. 
possesses key of Hell, 74. 
cause of war in Heaven, 71- 
72. 



Sin, 
bridge built by, 81. 

° Sins (see Seven Deadly Sins). 

° Sion hill, 5, 94. 

"slip, 12, 97. 

° small infantry (pygmies), 28, 
105. 

° Solomon (see uxorious king) , 
23, 104. 

° sounding alchemy, 61, 110. 

spear of Satan described, 17. 

° Spirit, Holy, 6, 95. 

stairway, celestial, xxi. 

° strongest and fiercest (Mo- 
loch), 42, 108. 

° Stygian council, 61, 110. 

° Stygian flood, 14, 99. 

°Styx (see infernal rivers), 64, 
111. 

° sublimed, 14, 99. 

° such place, 8, 96. 

° sulphur, ever-burning, 8, 96. 

° suspense (adj.), 58, 110. 

°Symplegades (see Argo), 81, 
116. 

°syrtis, boggy, 78, 115. 

° Tantalus, 65, 111. 
° Tarsus, 13, 98. 
° Tartarean, 43, 108. 
° temple on opprobrious hill, 
21, 103. 



INDEX 



125 



temptation of Adam and Eve, 

xxii. 
Tennyson, cited, 1. 
°Ternate, 66, 112. 
°Tliammuz, 23, 104. 
° thralls, 11, 07. 
"^thunder (of the Almighty), 

xvii, 0, 12, 96. 
° thunderbolts, linkM, 18, 101. 
°Tidore, 66, 112. 
° Titan, 25, 105. 
° Titanian, 13, 97. 
°Trinacrian shore, 67, 112. 
° troubled sky, 62, 110. 
° Tuscan artist (Galileo), 16, 

99. 
°Typhoean, 62, 110. 
°Typlion, 13, 97. 

universe in P. L., vertical sec- 
tions of, XXV, xxvii, and 
xxxi. 
description of, xvi-xxii. 

°Uther's son (King Arthur), 
28, 106. 

° utmost orb (Primum Mobile), 
81, 116. 



° utter darkness, 8, 96. 
° uxorious king, 23, 104. 

°Valdarno, 17, 100. 

^ Vallombrosa, 17, 100. 

° Vandals (see multitude), 19, 

101. 
°view appear, in sudden, 76, 

114. 
°void profound, 58, 110. 

°wide Ethiopian to the Cape, 

66, 112. 
° witnessed, 7, 95. 
Woodcock, Katherine, xv. 
Wordsworth, cited, 1. 
World, creation of, xix-xx. 
description according to 
Ptolemaic system, xix-xx. 
Chart of, Ptolemaic system, 

xxxiii. 
Satan's journey to, xx-xxi, 

77-82. 
Satan's entrance into, xxi. 

°yelling monsters (hell- 
hounds), 72, 113. 



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